As the coalition races to pass a raft of controversial legislation before the Knesset dissolves later this week, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s media overhaul bill was further split on Sunday, with a special committee fast-tracking approval of the remaining parts even as critics decried the late notice about the changes to the bill and the lack of discussion of all its clauses.

The High Court of Justice was set to hold an emergency discussion on the move on Monday afternoon, as the coalition was aiming to bring it up for its final plenum votes.

The parts that were dropped on Sunday include an entire section on the establishment of a government media app that would allow the public to view public TV channels as well as sports coverage, free of charge. This has been opposed by the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties since the app would broadcast on Shabbat.

Instead, the bill would keep in place the existing “Idan Plus” service, which similarly allows the public to watch public TV networks without charge, though without the sports coverage. That service, too, operates on Shabbat.

However, Idan Plus requires connection to a television and isn’t a mobile app. The new app had been presented by Karhi as a boon for soldiers, since many of them are away from home most of the time.

Additionally, Sunday’s revisions quietly added clauses, demanded by MK Avi Maoz of the one-man ultraconservative Noam party, that would bar cable and satellite television providers Hot and Yes from broadcasting content that includes violence, sexuality or religious conversion, Channel 12 reported.

The bill itself would give the government significant control over broadcast media, news sites and other media, and it has provisions seen as designed to benefit the pro-coalition hard-right Channel 14.

It has been criticized by the Knesset’s professional legal staff and by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who have warned that the bill undermines press freedom and allows for political interference in the media.

The coalition has resorted to increasingly extreme measures in order to pass at least some parts of the legislation, which passed its first of three plenum readings in November and must pass its remaining votes this week if it is to pass before........

© The Times of Israel