New communications minister says ‘no place’ for public broadcasting in Israel

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Monday there was no reason to support state public broadcasting in Israel and indicated he intends to shut down the Kan broadcaster along with additional transmission regulating bodies.

Speaking at the DIGIT 2023 digital journalism conference at Reichman University in Herzliya, Karhi said the policy of his Likud party was to “remove obstacles and remove regulation” in the industry to allow the free market to prevail.

The Kan public broadcaster is among the bodies that “police the conversation, that cut off the connection between the public and the media,” Karhi claimed.

“In my view, there is no place in this day and age for a public broadcaster when there is a wide range of channels,” he added, explaining why he thought Kan and Army Radio, which is operated by the Israel Defense Forces, were superfluous.

The Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has long been accused of seeking to shut down Kan due to its criticizing the government while receiving public funding. The Times of Israel