Channel 2 is ours

It hasn't been long since Keshet promised to broadcast investigative programs on Channel 2 television and give the public what a communications outlet is meant to provide in exchange for the franchise it has received. Meanwhile, the Keshet and Reshet franchisees have won a tender for 10 years, and now one of the former's owners, Muzi Wertheim, is less willing to broadcast investigative programs.

Now it's apparently more important to retain close ties with Nochi Dankner, who owns several companies including Israir airlines. Wertheim sells Coca-Cola Israel, and Dankner buys Coca-Cola Israel through the marketing networks he owns, and spends millions in advertising on Channel 2. The governing council of the Second Authority for Television and Radio, which gave Keshet a franchise and now is supposed to ensure that it fulfills the conditions of the tender, has chosen not to get involved in Keshet's decision not to broadcast a "Fact" (Uvda) investigative program on Israir's attempt to cover up a near miss. The decision to stay out of the fray is a bad one, rendering the existence of the supervisory council superfluous.

The argument that this is not the time to broadcast an investigation of Israir since the company is waiting to hear whether it will be granted a permit to operate a New York-Tel Aviv line demonstrates how much Wertheim fails to understand the media or the difference between journalism and public relations. The media's job is to publicize all information when it is available, without taking into consideration financial issues that could influence the publication's timing. The information on Israir is especially relevant now, just prior to the granting of the permit, because it is questionable whether it is appropriate to give such a concession to a company that tries to conceal from the public information on a safety failure.

The journalistic information gathered by Fact does not belong to Wertheim or Keshet but to the public. Channel 2 also belongs to the public and was given to Keshet under certain restrictions for a set period. The Second Authority's ethics regulations state that a franchisee "shall not abstain from transmitting information whose broadcast is of journalistic interest." The Keshet company has not lived up to this standard.

If Keshet is merely a business and not a media company, there is no reason to allow it to broadcast commercials and prevent satellite and cable companies from doing the same. The franchise was not given to Keshet for it to earn as much as possible, but for its advertising income to help serve the public right to know via, among other things, investigative programs. Wertheim is allowed to decide to sell Coca-Cola Israel on a particular day, but he should not be allowed to halt the broadcast of a program that meets journalistic standards.

For years, Channel 1 was destroyed due to politicians' involvement in its broadcast content. Now it seems that the involvement of businessmen is liable to deteriorate the content of Channel 2 as well. The first conclusion is that we must produce public broadcasting independent of politics and business in order to compete with a commercial channel. The second conclusion is that journalists must vehemently protect professional ethics and not give in to any pressures in order not to impede the flow of information to the public.