Last update - 00:00 04/06/2007
Israel Broadcasting Authority defers vote over deep budget cuts
By Asaf Carmel, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) board announced on Monday it would take emergency measures to deal with its whopping NIS 230 million debt.
In a crisis meeting, the state broadcasting network's executive board discussed the deficit, but decided to postpone its decision on whether to authorize a reform plan suggested by the IBA chairman until the end of the week.
Employees and board members at the Israel Broadcasting Authority strongly oppose parts of the emergency plan which calls for deep budget cuts.
The plan calls for several radio stations, including one for new immigrants and one in Arabic, to be shut down and for all original shows on Channel 1 television to be cut, except for the news and politics shows "Mabat," "Politika" and "Ro'im Olam."
In addition, the hundreds of IBA employees left without work will receive only a base salary, even though additional payments make up the bulk of take-home pay for many of them.
A senior IBA employee said on Sunday that if the board approves the plan, the workers' committees will go to court to try to keep the scheme from being put into action.
Some members of the board said they opposed various elements of the plan.
"You can shut down everything, but I'm not sure that's what will save the network," said board member Rachel Kremerman, who is particularly against shutting down the radio stations geared toward minority groups. "I hope the proposal to shut down the radio stations will be toppled. From my perspective it's a casus belli, and I will fight against the idea as much as I can."
Ya'akov Naveh, a board member who represents the artists' organizations, is upset by the proposal to cancel most of the original television shows.
"It can't be that they leave only news programs," he said. "We are a public channel that must broadcast varied content."
Naveh also said that if the IBA plans to cut the employees' overtime, it should give them permission to do private work without violating ethical rules.