Ch. 14 actively promoting Bibi – Yesh Atid
Party threatens Channel 12 in response • Chikli barred from running with Likud
The Yesh Atid party, led by Prime Minister Yair Lapid, filed a petition to the Central Election Committee (CEC) on Wednesday, demanding that the right-wing Channel 14 news outlet be categorized as a political platform working on behalf of the Likud.
The petition was filed on behalf of the party by two of its members, Economy Minister Orna Barbivay and Energy Minister Karin Elharrar. The two demanded that the channel and its owner, billionaire Yitzchak Mirilashvili, be treated as an active political organization, and thus be required to notify its viewers that they are receiving “propagandist messages” on behalf of the Likud.
“This is a real threat to the basic principles of the election in Israel,” the petition read. “A media outlet is fully harnessed in favor of a candidate and a party, without balances and contrary to every standard of reasonableness, fairness, and common sense.”
The CEC is composed of representatives
of the different parties based on their size in the outgoing Knesset, and is headed by High Court Justice Yitzhak Amit, whose rulings are legally binding. Parties may appeal his decisions to the High Court.
The petition included many examples as evidence, including claims that the channel’s executives participated in Likud propaganda; that one of the channel’s anchors and political
analysts Yaakov Bardugo took part in negotiations on behalf of the Likud; that people who appeared on the channel went on to work in the Likud or become Likud Knesset candidates; and explicit calls by the channel’s reporters to vote for the Likud and not for Yesh Atid.
The petition included precedent. In 2019, the CEC ruled that a left-wing organization called “Darkenu” was a political organization for election purposes, since the “reasonable voter” saw its publications as being “for or against clearly defined political parties.” The case of Channel 14 is even more clear-cut, since its activity was “intense, day-to-day, funded by an ample amount of money and presented as objective news,” the petition read.
“Channel 14 uses a platform licensed by the government to broadcast election propaganda in favor of the Likud party,” Barbivay said. “It should be made clear that, in the petition, we do not seek to influence the content of the broadcasts, but demand that the channel transparently report to the public that the content constitutes election propaganda, as the law requires.”
According to Elharrar, “The petition seeks to reveal the fact that Channel 14 pretends to be a news channel, while its entire purpose is improper propaganda for Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a situation that tramples the media in Israel, whose job it is to report the truth [and] to serve the public, and for that reason, also harms reporters who do their job faithfully. Allowing the channel to continue lying to the public is a real danger to the press in Israel and to democracy as a whole.”
The Likud responded on Wednesday afternoon by threatening to file a similar petition against Channel 12 News, accusing it of “intense election activity” on behalf of the Center-Left bloc in general and Yesh Atid in particular.
Meanwhile, former MK Amichai Chikli of Yamina cannot run in the election as part of Likud, Central Election Committee head Yizhak Amit ruled.
Chikli’s candidacy was barred after Meretz MK Gaby Lasky petitioned the CEC, claiming that Chikli did not resign early enough to be allowed to run on a different list than the one he was on for the previous Knesset.
Israel’s election laws stipulate that if an MK is designated as a “seceder” from their party by the Knesset Home Committee, they must resign immediately to be allowed to run in the next election as part of an existing party.