The ruling coalition is speeding ahead with a series of controversial moves targeting the media, including legislation that would place the Kan public broadcaster’s budget under government control, as the Knesset faces the possibility of an early halt to its activities should snap elections be called.

Defying repeated legal objections, lawmakers on Monday sent the Kan budget bill back to the Knesset plenum for its final readings before passage and okayed splitting a broadcast media overhaul pushed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s into separate bills to allow certain parts of it to advance. They also added a last-minute amendment to the measure that will solely benefit the hawkish Channel 14 outlet.

The legislative push has intensified accusations that the government is attempting to assert control over Israel’s media landscape, with critics now alleging that the measures are being rushed through so they can be implemented before voters head to the polls, possibly as early as September.

Coalition lawmakers reject those claims, arguing the measures are necessary reforms to an outdated regulatory system.

Despite Monday’s votes, it remains unclear whether the coalition can assemble the majority needed to pass the legislation into law amid the ongoing coalition crisis between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and the ultra-Orthodox parties over the failure to pass a bill regulating military service exemptions for yeshiva students.

Earlier this month, the Haredi parties backed efforts to dissolve the Knesset and force early elections over the dispute. The coalition has since struggled to advance legislation, repeatedly withdrawing bills from the plenum agenda rather than risk defeat without ultra-Orthodox support.

Yair Golan, leader of the opposition Democrats party, explicitly accused the government on Monday of attempting to seize control of Israel’s media to avoid losing the election, which is currently scheduled for late October.

“That is why, in recent weeks, it has been working at full force to seize control of the free media before the public goes to the polls,” he said ahead of his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, arguing that the coalition is attempting to compress “[former Hungarian prime minister] Viktor Orban’s entire Hungarian playbook into a matter of weeks.”

Yisrael Beytenu MK Evgeny Sova, who sits on the special Knesset panel established to deliberate Karhi’s broadcast media overhaul, similarly accused the coalition of using legislation to weaken the free press ahead of elections.

“We are fighting for freedom of expression, but also journalism and the public’s right to reliable information,” Sova told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

At a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee Monday, lawmakers voted to advance a bill giving the government authority to determine the budget of the Kan public broadcaster to its first of three readings in the Knesset.

MKs pushed ahead with the measure despite opposition from the Knesset legal department, the Economics Committee’s legal advisers, and the deputy attorney general, who all said that the legislation does not meet constitutional standards.

The bill is seen as part of Karhi’s two-year campaign to dismantle the public broadcaster, which currently acts as an independent media outlet and is often critical of government officials.

The station’s funding is guaranteed by Israel’s Public Broadcasting Act, with strict provisions intended to preserve barriers between the broadcaster and political authorities, including keeping the government from being able to unilaterally alter or reduce the broadcaster’s funding.

The proposed legislation would end........

© The Times of Israel