Israel: EBU takes into account new threats against KAN!

The European Broadcasting Union, EBU, expresses its concerns regarding the new threats against the indepedance and the sustainability of the Israeli public broadcaster KAN!

One month ago, the Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi seems to have stated that “there is no place for public broadcasting in the State of Israel”.

Moreover, the Government threatened to withdraw the fundings towards the piblic broadcaster something that would lead to the shut down of the KAN and the news operation and to an important loss of jobs.

In addition, there are also plans of depriving KAN’s ability for commercial revenue, which would lead to 13% income reduction, and of transfering three of the most popular radio stations to commercial owners.

The current crisis has been escalated as the Minister of Communications through a letter towards the Director General of KAN questions their reporting of the government’s judicial reforms and the protests against them.

The Director General of EBU Noel Curran stated that:

“Impartial news and information are critical to the functioning of a healthy democracy. 

“We call on the Israeli government to safeguard the independence of our Member KAN and ensure it is allowed to operate in a sustainable way, with funding that is both stable, adequate, fair, and transparent.”

Source: EBU

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