A bill proposed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi targeting broadcast media would loosen safeguards meant to silo off news content from moneyed interests, opening up the media landscape to more bias and editorial chicanery — but despite concerns, would not by itself expand the government’s ability to directly steer coverage, according to an expert on the subject.

Karhi’s bill, which passed its first Knesset reading on Monday, scraps existing license requirements that the lawmaker says have hamstrung competition, instead establishing a new regulatory council with broad powers, dramatically remaking the media landscape.

But though Karhi’s rhetoric has sparked worries that the bill will give him and other strident critics of the media the ability to squelch unfavorable content, on paper the legislation stops well short of giving the government control over news content, according to Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.

“Scrapping… quality guardrails, while opening the door to many new entrants… risks flooding a small, shrinking-ad market with weak outlets. That can trigger a race to the bottom — less investigative capacity, shallow reporting, and more bias,” said Shwartz Altshuler, who composed the code of ethics for Israel’s Public Broadcasting Corporation and, since 2023, has overseen the ethical tribunal of Israel’s Journalists’ Association.

Critics of the bill, including Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, and media watchdogs have warned that it presents “real concern of severe harm to freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” and concentrates power in the hands of a communications minister and government that have repeatedly referred to the media as “an enemy of the state” and accused of being responsible for October 7.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has largely refused to give interviews to the Israeli press and has insisted that he is the victim of a witch hunt by a left-leaning legal system in cahoots with the media, against the backdrop of his ongoing corruption trial, which involves allegations that he tried to improperly influence news coverage.

Karhi, a far-right lawmaker in Netanyahu’s Likud party, says the overhaul will increase competition in the media market and reduce costs for consumers.

Shwartz Altshuler has been following Karhi’s efforts to remake the media landscape for years. A technology law and policy expert, she examines how developments in information, surveillance, cyber, and artificial intelligence intersect with democratic governance.

She has written extensively about the pressures on Israel’s small news broadcast market, noting that Hebrew-language news cannot expand its audience internationally and faces limited advertising revenue — factors that make outlets vulnerable to political influence.

While Shwartz Altshuler says the current bill is less extreme than its first incarnation two years ago, she remains concerned.

“You can’t divorce this bill from the broader context of this government’s policies. Netanyahu is happy to let Karhi play and intimidate current media channels because he sees the media as an enemy, and he wants to take revenge,” she said.

Shwartz Altshuler spoke to The Times of Israel on Tuesday following the first reading of the bill. The text has been edited for clarity.

What does the bill propose to do?

The bill rewrites the rules for Israel’s commercial audiovisual media market — TV and online video news and programming. Its core move is to eliminate licensing for anyone who........

© The Times of Israel