Israel's Attorney General Asks High Court to Block Communications Law

Israel's Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, has formally requested the Supreme Court to issue a permanent interim order against a communications law initiated by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and passed by the Knesset in July. Baharav-Miara argues that the law would cause severe damage to the free communications market and that it was passed through a flawed legislative process, containing "an extreme collection of substantive defects."

The law, spearheaded by Minister Karhi, significantly reduces regulation and permits the establishment of new news channels without government oversight. It also eliminates the separation between owners of television channels and their news companies. The Supreme Court had previously issued a temporary order freezing the law's implementation two days after its passage, and the Attorney General is now seeking to make this freeze permanent.

In her appeal, the Attorney General heavily criticized the Knesset's proceedings, noting that Karhi's proposal was suddenly introduced at the end of the broadcasting law debates, without prior mention in the government's bill. This proposal, she stated, immediately changed the definition of a "small licensee" to include entities with revenues up to two billion shekels. Consequently, all licensees under the Second Authority Law would be considered "small licensees."

This change, according to Baharav-Miara, means these licensees would no longer be obligated to broadcast news at all. If they choose to broadcast news, they would not be required to do so through a dedicated news company. She warned that this would effectively abolish the primary framework designed to ensure the journalistic independence and reliability of news broadcasts in Israel, immediately impacting two of Israel's oldest news programs on the two largest commercial channels without establishing a suitable alternative arrangement.