Only six years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu's government mobilized false grounds to justify the destruction of the Broadcasting Authority.
In this defamation campaign, the politicians even compared the PA's people to Hamas.
So much so, we haven't forgotten.
Today, the representatives of the same prime minister, from the same party, want to close the corporation, as much as they want - only on other grounds.
This time it is the corporate budget that disturbs their rest.
Like the reasons for closing the Broadcasting Authority, the reasons for closing the corporation are nothing but false reasons, intended to cover up the real reason clearly formulated by Minister Miri Regev: "What is the corporation worth if we don't control it".
Good communication is submissive communication.
The watchdog of democracy, in their eyes, is a trained dog that wags its tail at the command of its master.
Good communication, in the eyes of Karai, Regev and their emissaries, is a propaganda tool that the government controls and subordinates to its needs and goals.
The Public Broadcasting Corporation - like the Broadcasting Authority before it - is not free of corrections that need to be made, but it is an excellent communication tool.
I confess.
It is not easy for me to speak in praise of the institution that arose on the ruins of the Broadcasting Authority, which was destroyed under false pretenses and opacity.
Still, I participate wholeheartedly in the fight to prevent the closure of the corporation.
Public broadcasting is essential not to serve the government that approves its budget.
The Broadcasting Corporation has indeed been cured of its insidious dependence on the government, and its managers are no longer appointed by the ministers it oversees, but it is appropriate to raise the buffer and also prevent dependence on the government for approving its budget.
Public broadcasting must exist by virtue of being completely free from dependence on capitalists and advertisers.
The success of public broadcasting is not measured by ratings.
The goals of public broadcasting are: to encourage high-quality original work and nurture creators - and the corporation does this with great success;
to reflect the cultural and social periphery - here, in my view, even more must be done than what has been done so far;
and to survey what is happening in the geographical periphery, the one that extends south of Ashdod and north of Netanya.
Yes, in Netivot, not only "red color" warnings are heard, and not only "police preparation for the Baba Sali celebration".
In Netivot there is also a tremendous construction and there is a fascinating cultural life.
The same is true in Ofakim and Acre.
a surprise.
The public broadcasting news system has another role: to serve as a beacon of ethics and journalistic values, as, for example, the program "On the other side" does, and even more so.
Does the broadcasting corporation meet all these goals?
In my opinion, not all of them.
First and foremost, it does not sufficiently cover the geographic periphery, as it should have.
The news studios of the defunct Broadcasting Authority in Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Shmona were closed immediately upon the establishment of the corporation, and the coverage of the south and the north is still the responsibility of too few reporters.
These goals are not in front of the eyes of the minister of communications who is threatening to close the corporation, but the hundreds of millions that he wants to transfer to commercial broadcasters, preferably ones that will satisfy his wishes.
How did he say - if you're already making a good series like "Coupe Main", what's the problem with incorporating in the background some products that financed the production?!
Now take it to the field of news and investigations, and you will understand which press the minister is aiming at.
The writer is a media person and lecturer, a veteran of the Israel Broadcasting Authority and a member of the Jerusalem Journalists Association
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