Defense Minister Israel Katz argued that the station’s original purpose as a platform serving IDF soldiers and their families has been overshadowed by political content.
Defense Minister Israel Katz is expected to bring his proposal to close Army Radio after 75 years of broadcasting to a cabinet vote on Sunday.
If approved, the closure would go into effect on March 1 next year.
Katz’s decision is based on the recommendation of a professional committee, but critics have argued that the panel was handpicked to ensure Katz’s desired outcome.
The committee had described the very existence of a military radio station broadcasting to the general public as “a democratic anomaly that has no equal in the world,” adding that Army Radio’s involvement in current affairs and news “harms the IDF’s status as the people’s army.”
Katz: Army Radio’s original purpose has been overshadowed
Katz argued that the station’s original purpose as a platform serving IDF soldiers and their families has been overshadowed by political content that, in his view, undermines the army.
“As I have made clear, what was is not what will be. The Israeli government established Army Radio as a military station to serve as a mouthpiece and an ear for IDF soldiers and their families – not as a platform for voicing opinions, many of which attack the IDF and the soldiers themselves,” he has said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz seen in the Knesset plenum, December 16, 2024 (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG/FLASH90)
There was no clear public explanation for why Army Radio could not be partially privatized while severing its direct link to the IDF, as many experts have suggested as a compromise to salvage one of the country’s premier media outlets.
Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara has said the move “raises concerns about political interference in public broadcasting and questions regarding the violation of freedom of expression and the press.”
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report.