Israel Eyes Legislation Banning Free Newspapers
Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation has voted against a bill many believe targets the freesheet Israel Today. Despite this defeat, the bill’s sponsor, MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) vowed to bring the bill to the Knesset on Wednesday.
Entitled “Prohibition on Distributing Newspapers Free,” the bill would make it illegal for any newspaper to be distributed for free beyond its first year of publication. Israel Today has been in operation since 2006, and would therefore be forced to shut down immediately or else begin charging for content.
Solodkin said the bill is aimed at protecting freedom of the press, rather than stifling it. In an interview with Israel National News, when the bill was first submitted, Solodkin said, “I am in favor of freedom of expression and pluralism, but in the current situation, there is a danger of centralization – one paper for the lower classes that want a free newspaper, and one for the upper classes.”
Israel has three dominant daily newspapers, Israel Today, Yediot Acharonot and Maariv. The latter two are the established papers that are now losing out to the free newcomer, with Maariv rumored to be near folding.
“There must be fair competition; it is unfair if a newspaper can cause another to close because it’s given out for free. This is what I am trying to prevent,” Solodkin said.
Regardless of her public comments, the popular sentiment across Israel’s media is that the bill is yet another attempt to shut down Israel Today’s operations. Legislation brought to the Knesset in December of 2009 sought to ban foreign ownership of newspapers.
Israel Today is owned by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is a supporter and confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is current chairman of the coalition Likud party, which is in opposition to the Kadima party of which Solodkin is a member. The paper’s support for Netanyahu is widely debated in media circles. Adelson denies it outright. The freesheet’s opponents, however, have dubbed it the “Bibiton”, according to The Forward, because it “has been so uncritical in its support of Netanyahu”.
Those looking to prove the accuracy of the “Bibiton” moniker, need look no further than the recent lobbying efforts of Netanyahu’s representatives. Their efforts helped ensure the defeat of the bill in the Ministry, and Haaretz reports that Netanyahu is expected to demand coalition discipline to defeat the bill when it is submitted to the Knesset.
However, the other side could argue, as does Barak Medina, vice dean of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law, that this legislation is an “unlawful violation of the rights enshrined in Israel's basic laws on the freedom of occupation and on human dignity and freedom, as well as a violation of the freedom of expression, the right to property and to equality, among others.”
