Prime Minister Sharon and Raanan Cohen (Labor), the Minister responsible for the Israel Broadcasting Authority, have asked Voice of Israel Radio, as well as television\'s Channels One and Two, not to provide a forum for PA figures to present their views. Moti Kirschenbaum, former director of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, is against the idea. He told Arutz-7 today, \"In this day and age, there\'s no point to such a ruling. If they don’t get interviewed by Israeli stations, they\'ll get interviewed somewhere else… You can\'t censor it. If you don\'t see Bargouti on Channel One, you\'ll see him on CNN, or on SkyNews…\" He did not relate to the fact that the Israeli public generally watches more domestic television than CNN.
When Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal said that even in the U.S., the stations have agreed not to broadcast Taliban propaganda, Kirschenbaum said, \"Don\'t build on this; it will soon change. Right now, the U.S. is still under the shock of the events of Sept. 11, and understandably so. I agree, though, that there is a problem with playing pre-recorded tapes, but regular interviews are fine…\"
Yisrael Harel, former editor of the Yesha journal Nekudah and former Secretary-General of the Yesha Council, took an opposite tack: \"The fact that such a recommendation has to be given at all, when we are in the middle of a war, shows much about the situation in which we find ourselves. It also shows that the media see itself as a separate authority unto itself… It\'s not that I object to hearing what the other side is thinking, but the problem is that the very interview itself gives legitimacy to our enemy.\" On a related topic, Harel also objected to the tendency on Army Radio to say, \'The IDF Spokesman claims…,\' \"as if there are two legitimate and equal sides, the PA and the IDF spokesman…\"
When Arutz-7\'s Haggai Segal said that even in the U.S., the stations have agreed not to broadcast Taliban propaganda, Kirschenbaum said, \"Don\'t build on this; it will soon change. Right now, the U.S. is still under the shock of the events of Sept. 11, and understandably so. I agree, though, that there is a problem with playing pre-recorded tapes, but regular interviews are fine…\"
Yisrael Harel, former editor of the Yesha journal Nekudah and former Secretary-General of the Yesha Council, took an opposite tack: \"The fact that such a recommendation has to be given at all, when we are in the middle of a war, shows much about the situation in which we find ourselves. It also shows that the media see itself as a separate authority unto itself… It\'s not that I object to hearing what the other side is thinking, but the problem is that the very interview itself gives legitimacy to our enemy.\" On a related topic, Harel also objected to the tendency on Army Radio to say, \'The IDF Spokesman claims…,\' \"as if there are two legitimate and equal sides, the PA and the IDF spokesman…\"