"If it becomes necessary to impose a veto on the abolition of the public broadcasting corporation, I will do so," Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon said this morning at a session of the Knesset Finance Committee at which the state budget for 2017-2018 was presented.
Kahlon said that under the coalition agreements Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did have the power to introduce reforms in the media, but pointed out that he too, as minister of finance, had a veto power on any budget expenditure exceeding NIS 10 million. Netanyahu has been acting determinedly to abolish the new Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) even before it goes on air.
Kahlon claimed that setting up the new broadcasting corporation involved a one-time expense of NIS 1.7 billion on registering assets, and current expenditure of NIS 300 million annually.
"Anyone who wants to abolish the corporation should demonstrate how he will ensure strong public broadcasting and where the money will come from. I won't let a single agora be cut from ministerial budgets," Kahlon said, referring to reports that abolishing the corporation would oblige the Ministry of Finance to impose an across-the-board cut in government development budgets.
Asked by MK Micky Rosenthal (Zionist Union) whether his opposition to abolishing the broadcasting corporation was because of the budget alone and did not stem from considerations of principle, Kahlon responded, "Let no-one try to tell me what public broadcasting means. I supported public broadcasting in the days when you were in private broadcasting, but here we're talking about a great deal of money." Kahlon said that, beyond that, his philosophy was opposed to playing with people's fates.
Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) invited the minister of finance to appear before the committee even though the convention is that the minister does so only after the Knesset has passed the budget at first reading.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 31, 2016
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