(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister Raanan Cohen, RSF protested the ban on live interviews with Palestinian militants broadcast by radio station Kol Israel. “During these times of escalating violence, Israeli and Palestinian audiences should have access to pluralistic information,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We fear that this measure may lead to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister Raanan Cohen, RSF protested the ban on live interviews with Palestinian militants broadcast by radio station Kol Israel. “During these times of escalating violence, Israeli and Palestinian audiences should have access to pluralistic information,” said Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. “We fear that this measure may lead to state control of the radio station’s editorial line, and ask that you cancel this directive,” he added.
According to information collected by RSF, on 22 October 2001, Minister Cohen, who oversees the broadcasting law, sent a letter to the directors of the state radio station Kol Israel, asking them not to broadcast live interviews with Palestinian militants. He reminded them of the current regulations, which prohibit the use of state radio stations to serve the enemies’ propaganda. This directive was issued just after the Sunday 21 October broadcast of a live interview with West Bank leader Hussein al Sheikh. During a cabinet meeting, Education Minister Limor Livnat, mentioning the interview with al Sheikh, complained that the radio station “gave him the opportunity to spread his lies.”
