The High Court of Justice on Sunday froze implementation of key parts of a sweeping media industry overhaul law passed by the Knesset last week that petitioners argue specifically benefits pro-government news outlets and will severely harm the political neutrality of broadcast news media.

The court issued a temporary order relating to clauses of the legislation that were slated to go into effect immediately, which include some of the most far-reaching measures, but noted that large sections of the law are not scheduled to come into effect until later and an emergency stay was therefore not necessary for the entire law.

The petitions against the law, filed by several government watchdog groups and opposition parties, raised concerns that clauses of the law coming into effect immediately would “cause irreversible damage to the media market” and be used to sway the October 27 election.

The petitions, including some filed before the bill was passed into law, also allege a slew of severe procedural flaws in the legislative process, which could by themselves give the High Court cause to strike it down.

Immediately following the decision, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who authored the legislation and was heavily involved in advancing it through Knesset, called on the government to defy the High Court order, claiming the court “has no authority to suspend or strike down laws” and declared that the legislation “remains fully in force.”

Karhi has several times in the past called on the government to defy the High Court, something it has stopped short of doing but has threatened to do.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir accused the justices of “trampling the will of the people’s elected representatives,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the court had “completely lost all restraint in its war against the Knesset and the government of the nationalist camp.”

MK Efrat Rayten of........

© The Times of Israel