Mass Media in Israel

My Notes on Israeli Media based on

Mass Media in the Middle East: A Comprehensive Handbook Book by Yahya R. Kamalipour

Israeli Media: Israel has a very robust daily press reflecting over 85.5% of the population read newspapers everyday. From its founding in 1948 up to the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israel’s press – drawn from British media philosophy – was responsible for ‘social harmony and national security’ and subject to an army censorship apparatus. By law, all editorial matter was sent to the censor prior to publication. After the ’73 war, however, the press began to criticize the government and elevated during the Israeli invasion of Lebanese in 1982. By the Palestinian uprising (intifada) in 1987, Israeli journalists felt free to publicly discuss all issues and a growing competition between several of the mainstream dailies further heightened this trend. 

The most popular daily in Israel is Yediot Akhronot (Latest News) contributing to 51.7% of the country’s daily readership. Ma’ariv (Evening) comes in a far second with 14.6% of the readership, and is considered to be more right-wing than the neutral Yediot. Israel’s most erudite and dovish daily, Ha’aretz, holds 5.5% of the market.

Alternative newspapers include the newspaper representing the ulta-Orthodox community (which make up 10% of the population) and consist of synagogue newsletters for religious indoctrination. Aside from religious content, these publications have their own strict standards of what cannot be published including pictures of women and reporting on crime or entertainment.

Israel also has several Arabic-language dailies mostly published in East Jerusalem like Al-Fajr, Al-Shaab, and Al-Quds and in Haifa such as Al-Ittihad. Several of these Palestinian-produced newspapers have been subject to severe censorship in addition to harsh economic problems with several shutting down in recent years.

The Jerusalem Post is the leading English-language daily and attracts 2.5% of readership targeting tourists and diplomatic personnel station in Israel. Originally leaning towards the left of the political spectrum, beginning 1990 under a new ownership, the Post has take a very hawkish stance in the area of national security and the Palestinian issue.

Israel’s radio history began in 1936 with Kol Yisrael (Voice of Israel) over ten years before official statehood. The radio expanded enormously after 1948 and ranks as the fifth largest radio station in the world today. In 1993, Kol Israel consisted of seven channels with channel A broadcasting cultural programs (4.4% listeners), channel B is mostly news and current events along with popular music (28.6%) channel C is for targeted to youth, channel D broadcasts news and entertainment in Arabic (3.4%) and channel E is classical music (3.4%) along with 2 AM channels. Funding comes in the form of annual fee paid by the listening public and commercial advertising.

The most popular station however is the Israeli Army station, Galei Zahal, which boasts 38.3% of listeners. Because of Israel’s security problems, a significant percentage of Israelis are news-junkies, which is reflected in all of Israel’s stations as they prioritize spots for the news regardless of its affiliation. Most stations offer news updates every 30 minutes throughout the day.

Viewed with much skepticism and a medium that corrupted culture, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, refused to allow television in his country. But in 1965, television was finally introduced (Israel Television or ITV) as a form of education and under astringent political pressure. This pressure and fear to allow television to flourish led to the predominant programs imported from the United States and Europe. A second channel wasn’t introduced until mid-1980’s, proving to be popular; it finally turned commercial in 1993. Depending on where Israeli’s live, many were receiving external channels from Egypt, Jordan and the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Middle East network from Cyprus. Cable television is very popular as well with up to 60% of the population subscribed to it.

Israeli media ownership has been simple. All print media is under private ownership while broadcast media is under government monopoly. The 1933 Press Ordinance regulates the printed press while the Broadcast Authority Law of 1965 overlooks broadcast media. Up until 1988, the military regularly censored Israeli press media and was replaced by a self-regulatory body known as the Editors’ Council. The council is a joint body of all the Hebrew dailies (except one) and the Israel Broadcasting Authority that operates under an agreement in which issues concerning national security are brought by the government for discussion in informal briefings and will not be published in the Israeli media.
The restrictions overlooking Israeli media are not nearly as stringent as the regulations and laws imposed on Israel’s Arabic-language press. It was not uncommon for Arabic-language papers to close down temporarily or even forced to go out of business permanently.

Israel has one news agency, ITIM, which distributes and purchases global news in exchange for its local ones. The Israeli Army press spokesman provides information regarding military matters to the local and foreign press. Israeli media, as a rule of thumb, mobilizes to support national efforts and to participate in national events. For example, during massive waves if immigration in the early 1950’s and late 1980’s, special programs on television were aimed at teaching Hebrew to the new immigrants.

Israel is now in the process of a complete media revolution and is expected to bring it in line with most Western democracies. Promising signs include a highly educated citizenry and new communication technologies. The biggest obstacle, however, is it’s exceptionally strict regulation enforcement on Arab media and as long as the political climate and national security continue to fluctuate, the Arabic-language newspapers will continue to be unstable.