Succumbing to public pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday assured the country that he will scrap a newly-passed controversial law that banned journalists working for Israel’s public broadcaster from expressing their personal opinions on air.
“The Prime Minister believes that the ethical rules for journalists do not need to be enshrined in the primary legislation, and decided to bring an amendment to the clause,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday.
A proposal to this effect is likely to be brought in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) as early as Monday, local media reported.
The controversial law, passed earlier this week, drew sharp criticism from journalists who accused the government of trying to suppress dissent.
The Israel Press Council has also urged the Parliament to cancel the law, which stipulated that broadcasts should “avoid one-sidedness, prejudice, expressing personal opinions, giving grades and affixing labels, ignoring facts or selectively emphasising them not according to their newsworthiness.”
Ofir Akunis, the Minister responsible for the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), has already submitted his resignation on Friday, citing “lack of backing” for the new law. Akunis had initially defended the controversial clause, saying that the law was designed to increase journalistic objectivity. “It’s possible the clause was not formulated clearly and sharply enough,” he wrote on Facebook adding, “No one is trying to silence (the media).”
He also emphasised that the law only applies to newscasts. The clause applies to the current broadcaster IBA, which is set to be shut down in March 2016, and not to the new public broadcasting body that is due to replace it.