חוק השידור הציבורי הישראלי (תיקון מס' 6), התשע"ז-2017Israeli Public Broadcasting Law (Amendment No. 6), 2017 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

Amendment No. 5 to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Law, 2014 established that the broadcasts of the Public Broadcasting Corporation would commence on 30 April 2017. It was also established that the said commencement date could be brought forward by one of two tracks: the first, the Minister of Communications and the Minister of Finance may bring forward the commencement date if the Council notified them that the Corporation is ready to begin broadcasting on a date earlier than the commencement date; the second, a general authorization for the said ministers, after consulting with the Council, to bring forward the commencement date by order. This amendment repealed the first track for bringing forward the commencement date, and left in place the second track, which grants the ministers general authority to bring forward the commencement date by order.

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What was said in the plenum

The bill deals with a further postponement of the start date of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation's operations and of the end of the Broadcasting Authority's broadcasts, in an amendment to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Law. The main dispute between the parties concerns whether the postponement stems from substantive considerations or from the Prime Minister's wish to control the media and prevent the establishment of an independent public broadcaster, with the discussion also drifting into current topics such as the investigations against the Prime Minister, the political-security situation, and relations with the Palestinians.

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An automatic summary of the plenum transcripts: the debate on the bill at every reading it was voted on. Arguments are given as the speakers made them; this is not an assessment. The list of speakers comes from the transcript, without a model. A very long debate: every speech was shortened to the same length before summarising. Transcripts of the sittings: 1, 2

Reservations to the second reading

12 reservations were filed: proposed changes to the text the committee brought to the second and third reading.

The reservations sought to change the wording of the provisions on notice and consultation within the council and the timetables for advancing the decision dates, and some of them proposed deleting the paragraphs in question entirely.

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By faction

• Zionist Union opposition · 10 reservations · 24 members
• Meretz opposition · 8 reservations · 5 members
• Joint List opposition · 2 reservations · 13 members
• Yesh Atid opposition · 2 reservations · 11 members

A joint reservation counts for every faction whose members filed it.

Proposers and reservation numbers are extracted automatically from the committee version, and the count is checked against the numbers printed in it. The descriptions are an automatic summary. Committee version for the second and third reading (PDF)