{"id":946094,"date":"2026-07-19T21:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/946094\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T21:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:03:13","slug":"high-court-freezes-elements-of-communications-minister-karhis-media-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/946094\/","title":{"rendered":"High Court freezes elements of Communications Minister Karhi’s media law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Justice<\/a> on Sunday temporarily froze the provisions of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi\u2019s broadcasting reform that were set to take effect immediately, while declining to suspend the law in full.<\/p>\n

Justice Ofer Grosskopf gave the Knesset and government until July 26 to respond to requests to suspend the law, or parts of it, while the petitions<\/a> are heard.<\/p>\n

Procedurally, three petitions were filed already during the legislative process. Grosskopf<\/a> joined them into one large case with the four petitions filed after the law\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n

Grosskopf said the petitions raised \u201cweighty claims\u201d regarding both the way the law was enacted and some of the arrangements it established or abolished.<\/p>\n

Given the scope of the changes and their expected effect on the media market, he added, there was concern that it would be difficult to \u201cturn back the clock\u201d once the law entered into force.<\/p>\n

\"SupremeSupreme court justice Ofer Grosskopf (C) arrives for a hearing on a petition to convene the Judicial Selection Committee at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, May 24, 2026. (credit: NOAM REVKIN\/FLASH90)Grosskopf declines full suspension, partial freeze enabled<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, since most of the law\u2019s provisions are not scheduled to take effect immediately, Grosskopf<\/a> declined to issue a provisional order suspending the law as a whole, instead freezing only the provisions scheduled to enter into force on the date of the law\u2019s publication \u2013 until the court rules on the matter.<\/p>\n

Karhi rejected the court\u2019s authority to issue the order, saying the law remained valid despite the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe High Court has no authority to freeze or strike down laws,\u201d he said, arguing that an order issued without authority had no legal validity.<\/p>\n

Karhi also said he did not intend to participate in the proceedings for as long as the temporary order remained in effect, accusing the court of arbitrarily overriding Knesset legislation before holding a hearing.<\/p>\n

Most of the reform is scheduled to enter into force two years after the law\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n

The provisions that were to take effect immediately include the establishment of a five-member search committee responsible for recommending candidates for public positions on the new broadcasting regulator, alongside several amendments to existing broadcasting and administrative laws.<\/p>\n

The practical effect of the order is therefore to prevent the process of constituting the new regulator from beginning.<\/p>\n

Under the law, the search committee would be chaired by the Communications Ministry director-general and include representatives of the Regulatory Authority, Finance Ministry, and Competition Authority, as well as an academic representative.<\/p>\n

It would recommend candidates for six public positions on the new nine-member regulatory council, who would then be appointed by the communications minister. The council\u2019s three remaining members would be civil servants representing the Communications Ministry and the relevant government regulators.<\/p>\n

The Knesset passed the law by a 53-48 vote on Thursday, completing one of Karhi\u2019s central legislative initiatives shortly before the Knesset\u2019s dissolution.<\/p>\n

The law establishes a unified broadcasting regulator intended to replace the Second Authority for Television and Radio and the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council.<\/p>\n

It also sets out a new regulatory framework for the broadcasting market, including financial and local-production requirements and rules governing the distribution of public and commercial content.<\/p>\n

The law ultimately approved by the Knesset was narrower than Karhi\u2019s original proposal.<\/p>\n

Provisions dealing with regulation, enforcement, and prohibition were separated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Provisions dealing with the regulation of news providers, enforcement powers, international content platforms, and prohibited broadcasts were separated from the bill before the final vote and are expected to be advanced separately.<\/p>\n

Karhi and supporters of the reform have argued that the existing regulatory system protects established broadcasters, restricts competition, and is unsuited to the modern media market.<\/p>\n

Opponents have warned that the appointment structure of the new council would give the government excessive influence over the body responsible for regulating broadcasters and could undermine the independence of the media.<\/p>\n

The four new petitions were filed by MKs Efrat Rayten (The Democrats) and Eitan Ginzburg (Blue and White); Zulat for Equality and Human Rights; the Academy for Democratic Israel and Bashaar \u2013 an Academic Community for Israeli Society; and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel.<\/p>\n

They were joined to earlier petitions filed while the bill was being debated, including by Hatzlaha, the Union of Journalists in Israel, and the Israel Press Council.<\/p>\n

The petitioners have challenged both the substance of the reform and the way it was advanced through the Knesset.<\/p>\n

Among other things, they argued that the legislation was advanced without sufficient professional groundwork and through a special committee chaired by Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan rather than the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, despite its broad implications for the communications market.<\/p>\n

During a hearing last week, Supreme Court Chief Justice Isaac Amit and justices Alex Stein and Yechiel Kasher expressed reluctance to intervene before the legislative process was complete.<\/p>\n

Amit said at the time that, if the bill became law, the petitions could be amended to challenge both its validity and alleged defects in the process through which it was enacted.<\/p>\n

The respondents must submit their positions on the requests for an interim order by Sunday, July 26, after which the court will decide whether to leave the limited freeze in place, expand it, or allow the provisions to take effect while the petitions remain pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The High Court of Justice on Sunday temporarily froze the provisions of Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi\u2019s broadcasting reform…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":946095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[378343,73831,99,8142,175178,398,50,97875,278],"class_list":["post-946094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-communications-ministry","tag-high-court-of-justice","tag-israel","tag-justice","tag-justice-ministry","tag-media","tag-news","tag-shlomo-karhi","tag-supreme-court"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116948672632046687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}