A special conference of the press council was held this evening (Sunday), against the closing of the corporation with the participation of journalists from all Israeli media bodies.
Press Council conference to discuss the state of the Public Broadcasting Corporation // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
The editor-in-chief of "Israel Today", Amr Lahmanovitz spoke that evening and said: "In November 2014 I was a member of the Israel Hayom system when, through undemocratic moves, politicians tried to enact a law that would threaten our existence as an independent system.
From that moment, I decided between myself that I will always stand by any media that is threatened by the political echelon with silencing or closing.
This is doubly true for the 'Kan' broadcasting corporation.
"The corporation makes us all better and stronger."
Omar Lahmanovich, editor-in-chief of "Israel Hayom" (archive), photo: Eric Sultan
"The existence of public broadcasting is a point of reference for the entire Israeli media.
It makes all of us, including us (Israel Today), better, stronger, and more accurately and reliably represent our audience.
"Therefore, harming public broadcasting is an act of self-blindness, as defined by Shulamit Haravan. We will not allow such a move to happen. We will keep our eyes open, all the time, for the sake of Israeli society."
Public protest against the closing of the corporation (archive), photo: Gideon Markovich
Avi Weiss, CEO and editor-in-chief of News 12 also spoke at the conference and said: "What does retired judge Hanan Meltzer want?
- After all, they stopped the decrees on the corporation.
And actually the danger has pretty much passed - so again my optimism was exaggerated.
A few days ago, a letter arrived from Communications Minister Karai to the heads of the corporation with actual threats.
The goal was and remains - to eliminate the corporation.
"We must understand that this is not a curiosity - they are serious, they are decisive, they do not intend to give up. But neither do we! We will preserve free communication here. This is not a fight for livelihood
- this is a fight for the country. There is no democratic country without free communication."
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