Freedom House puts politics ahead of human rights
It's embargoed until midnight tonight US time, but since I didn't get it directly from them, I'm not subject to the embargo. Freedom House has issued its annual report on freedom of the press, and has downgraded Israel because - wait for it -
Israel HaYom hands out newspapers for free!
Israel declined due to the growing impact of Yisrael Hayom, whose owner-subsidized business model endangered the stability of other media outlets, and
the unchecked expansion of paid content—some of it government funded—whose nature was not clearly identified to the public.
For the uninitiated, Israel HaYom is owned by that villain Sheldon Adelson, and is handed out for free on street corners and at traffic lights throughout the country. It lives on advertising, and has become the
number one circulating hard-copy newspaper in the country, much to the chagrin of Haaretz (which has almost no hard-copy presence and exists as a web site for foreigners) and Yediot Aharonot (previously the top-ranking tabloid). In fact, the Freedom House report reads like
Haaretz talking points.
Every newspaper in this country has 'paid government content' - legal notices and the like. There are many more here than in many other Western countries because every government tender and every public offering of securities (among other things) has to be published in two newspapers. But the people issuing the tender (local authorities) and the issuer of the securities (to stay with those two examples) have the right to choose in which newspapers they will publicize. Moreover, Freedom House gives no indication of how the 'paid content' in 2016 compares to past years, nor does it give any indication how much more (if any) 'content' goes to Yisrael HaYom than to any other newspaper.
The result is that while Israel is still the freest country in the Middle East and North Africa, Freedom House has downgraded our press from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' and our worldwide rank has declined to 65 (62 countries are rated 'Free') - behind countries like Chile and Uruguay and most of Europe (Norway is ranked #1, Belgium, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands are tied for #2, the US is ranked #28 and the UK is ranked #41). Ghana was the only other country that declined from 'Free' to 'Partly Free' this year.
Israel's downgrading reeks of politics. Politics should play no role in this type of ranking. Shame on Freedom House!
Labels: Freedom House, freedom of the press, Haaretz, Sheldon Adelson, Yisrael HaYom
Knesset bill would put Israel Hayom newspaper out of business
In what is clearly an effort to put the wildly successful Israel Hayom newspaper out of business, a group of six MK's has introduced a bill in the Knesset that would
limit the free distribution of newspapers.
The bill, which was proposed by MKs Eitan Cabel (Labor), Robert
Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu), Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), Elazar Stern
(Hatnua), Ariel Atias (Shas) and Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid), seeks to
ensure "true and fair competition between newspapers."
Analysts predict the law is likely to cause a brouhaha in the
government, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will act to
prevent it from passing. The law's opponents argue that the bill, if
passed, could drastically change the balance of representative power in
the Israeli press.
Under the bill, every newspaper which is defined as one of the four
daily newspapers most widely circulated in Israel will be sold at a
"nominal value" - about 70% of the price of the cheapest and most
popular newspaper.
In addition, the bill would ban distributing free newspapers for more
than a six-month period - and require the price of each paper to be
printed prominently on the front page.
Media experts are expected to slam the bill for contributing to the
ongoing decline in the newspaper industry, which has made headlines over
the past several years as popular publications begin to disappear.
A report by the International Business Times in 2012 noted
that the newspaper industry has shrunk by 40% worldwide since 2002, and
that it continues to decline at a rate of 6.4% per year. Many attribute
the decline to the ubiquitousness and ease of internet news sources.
Israel Hayom is distributed free at traffic intersections, and makes its money off advertising. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in Israel, displacing Yedioth Aharonoth within a couple of years of its founding. It is owned by Sheldon Adelson, and American Jew with a huge interest in Israel, who also owns casinos in the US. Adelson is also a big supporter of... Binyamin Netanyahu.
Pass the popcorn....
Labels: Ariel Atias, Ayelet Shaked, Binyamin Netanyahu, Eitan Cabel, Elazar Stern, freedom of the press, Sheldon Adelson, Yisrael HaYom
Yisrael HaYom opens English language website
Yisrael HaYom, the Sheldon Adelson-backed Hebrew language daily that is handed out for free every day, is opening an
English-language website.
Now, Israel Hayom has launched an English-language site run by former JPost Executive Editor Amir Mizroch, providing the main stories and opinion of the day in a digestible newsletter form.
This is a welcome addition to the vibrant Israeli media scene catering for those who want to know what’s going on in Israel in English.
I'm looking forward to it.
Labels: Yisrael HaYom
Israel's Fox News?
Politico's Ben Smith argues that Sheldon Adelson's Yisrael HaYom has become
Israel's Fox News.
Adelson's paper is an assault on the media status quo in the model of Fox News in a country where newspapers still litigate the political conversation. The echoes aren't subtle: One of the five principles printed on the tabloid's dense second page translates as "fair and balanced."
And like Fox, the paper has positioned itself against a mainstream media its editors cast as elitist and out of touch. Another of the five principles is "to remember that we are Israelis."
The paper's foreign editor, Boaz Bismuth, a former Israeli ambassador to Mauritania and longtime Paris correspondent for Yediot Aharonot — the new paper's main target and rival — embraces the comparison.
"Fox is proud to be American, but what is nice about America is that ABC and CBS and NBC are no less proud to be American," he said in an interview at the paper's quiet, humming Tel Aviv newsroom, leaving unstated the suggestion that Israel Hayom's rivals are not so proud.
"It doesn't mean that if sometimes Israel is right that I work for the government," said Bismuth, who offered an example of the new paper's posture: "If there are rumors about the bad conduct of a soldier, it won't immediately be our main headline."
Israel Hayom takes as its premise that out-of-touch mainstream media are the country's real power.
"They try to portray my newspaper as the real ruler of Israel, not Netanyahu," said Nahum Barnea, the top columnist at Yediot Aharonot, labeling the charge "ridiculous."
I don't have sales statistics, but my sense is that the number of newspapers sold in hard copy in this country has declined precipitously over the last 20 years. We get the JPost delivered, and I can tell you from experience that the last time we tried to cancel it, they cut the price again to persuade us to stay (that's two or three cuts in the last few years). In fact, the reason there are newspaper sales here at all here is that Orthodox and traditional Jewish Israelis won't turn on the computer or the television or radio on the Sabbath, and therefore they buy the Friday paper, which is like the Sunday paper elsewhere in the World. So far, the local newspapers have resisted giving any reasonable price for a "Friday only" subscription.
Fox also has considerable influence outside the US. Yisrael HaYom has none about which to speak. JPost and Haaretz carry Israel's message - or what they see as Israel's message - to the outside world. That message is not always presented the way that I (and I'm sure Adelson) would like to see it presented. While Adelson has conquered the market for Hebrew print media, his newspaper sorely lacks a real
English language web site that is updated in real time (a must these days for having influence outside of Israel).
This is a small country that lives on exports. Our news media is no exception.
Labels: Ben Smith, fair and balanced, Fox News, Sheldon Adelson, Yisrael HaYom
