Israel advances media controls
November 4, 2025
Israeli lawmakers have advanced legislation to give the government wide-ranging new powers over television and radio groups. The bill — which must pass two more votes in parliament to become law — was put forward by Israel’s hardline communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, who has long sought greater control over the media.
The new law would establish a single regulator for broadcast media — the majority of whose members would be appointed by Karhi — which would oversee broadcasting and streaming platforms. All content providers, including television and radio stations and news websites, would have to be registered with the new regulator, which would have the power to block and cancel registrations, as well as to issue fines to those not complying with its rules, reports FT.
The government’s top legal official attorney-general Gali Baharav-Miara, media groups and opposition politicians have branded it an attempt to give the government the power to muzzle the press. In an opinion issued earlier this year, Baharav-Miara warned that the bill would allow “political interference in the operation of broadcasting bodies and endangers free media in Israel”.
The legislation is the latest in a series of moves by Karhi against media groups. Earlier this year, he threatened to cut funding to the public broadcaster if it aired a documentary that included Palestinian perspectives on the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s founding.
The bill was passed after lawmakers from two ultraorthodox parties — which have been refusing to support government legislation for months because the ruling coalition has not passed a law exempting religious students from military conscription — swung behind the measure.
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