MK Shelly Tal Miron Demands Freeze on Communications Regulations Favoring Channel 14

MK Shelly Tal Miron of the Yesh Atid party has urgently called on the Attorney General and the Second Authority for Television and Radio to immediately halt the advancement of new draft regulations proposed by the Ministry of Communications. The demand follows her earlier allegations of severe legal violations, non-reporting, and data concealment by Channel 14 and the Second Authority. Tal Miron insists that the new regulations be frozen until the full financial reports of Channel 14 and other broadcasters are published, which will clarify which channels exceed the revenue threshold and thus lose their "small channel" status and regulatory exemptions.

The draft regulations, pushed by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, artificially raise the revenue threshold defining a "small channel" from 80 million shekels to 2 billion shekels. This change would classify all commercial channels in Israel as "small," exempting them from the legal obligation to establish separate news companies. Consequently, this would eliminate responsible oversight of news broadcasts and remove the structural separation between journalistic operations and channel owners.

Karhi and the Communications Committee Chair Galit Distel-Atbaryan have aggressively advanced this model, which also includes provisions allowing channels like 14 and i24NEWS, seen as pro-government, to charge platforms for content while enjoying unprecedented regulatory benefits worth millions. Channel 14’s continued classification as a "small channel" is viewed by Tal Miron as evidence that the legislation is tailored to benefit its owners, including the removal of the requirement to broadcast news from Jerusalem studios, since Channel 14’s studios are in Modiin.

Tal Miron accused Minister Karhi, who supports Channel 14 owner Mirilashvili, of attempting to pass "personalized regulation" that would save Channel 14 between 7 and 9 million shekels annually. Instead of collecting 11.4 million shekels owed to the public treasury since February, the government is crafting regulations to reduce this debt to just 1.6 million shekels. She emphasized that a commercial entity flagrantly violating the law should not receive regulatory rewards but rather enforcement.

The controversy arises amid preparations to pass the Broadcasting Law in the current Knesset session before the 2026 elections, with the law being split and amended with questionable clauses. Tal Miron’s intervention highlights concerns over conflicts of interest and the undermining of free media oversight in Israel.