Sefi Ovadia, a journalist on Keshet’s “Uvda” and a presenter on Army Radio, said a very close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured him to stop fighting then-station commander Dani Zaken and agree to bring Yaakov Bardugo into prime-time broadcasting on GLZ.
In an interview with David Wertheim on the Israeli Institute for Journalism and Communication podcast “Tik Tok,” Ovadia said the unnamed intermediary was also connected to Netanyahu “in an official capacity.” According to him, the message came at the height of his dispute over changes Zaken planned at the station. The associate allegedly told him: “Stop the fight with Dani Zaken,” and added, “Broadcast with Bardugo and everything will be fine. You will also get ratings, and Bardugo is still a figure.” Ovadia said the aim was to place Bardugo in a central broadcast slot, and that he refused outright.
Asked whether the goal was to help Bardugo return to the station, Ovadia said yes. He also said similar pressure was applied around his co-host on the morning show, Yinir Cozin, but declined to provide details. Ovadia argued the broader fight was not just over his and Cozin’s program, but over preventing GLZ from becoming a media outlet serving Netanyahu.
The comments revive a sharp 2023 GLZ confrontation. That summer, Ovadia criticized Bardugo on air after Bardugo accused opponents of the government of creating chaos, despite past remarks of his own urging senior Likud figures to create chaos to topple the Bennett-Lapid government. Soon afterward, Ovadia was summoned for a hearing by acting station commander Dani Zaken. His lawyers later said Zaken told him negative coverage of Bardugo was hurting the station’s ability to survive in a dangerous political climate, and that Netanyahu was displeased with the criticism. GLZ then denied reports of programming changes and rejected Ovadia’s claims about the hearing, saying he had used the public microphone for a personal quarrel and had aired a segment without the editor’s approval.
