Israel

The State of Israel enters the State Media Monitor’s 2026 cycle with two outlets in the main SMM dataset: the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC), branded Kan and Makan, and Galatz (Galei Tzahal), the Israeli Army Radio operated under the Israel Defense Forces. Both outlets are classified Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM) and both are placed on explicit SMM watch-list status for the 2026 cycle. The two-outlet ISFM cluster reflects the historical Israeli model of state-financed but editorially independent public-service broadcasting, while the watch-list status across both outlets reflects the cycle’s defining institutional feature: sustained, simultaneous legislative and administrative pressure on both outlets, partially preserved through repeated High Court of Justice interventions rather than through the regular functioning of statutory governance.

Statutory and institutional framework

The Israeli state-broadcasting architecture rests on two distinct statutory frameworks. IPBC was established by the 2014 Public Broadcasting Law as the successor to the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and began broadcasting on 15 May 2017, with a search-committee appointment process for its 12-member Council, a Director-General appointed by the Council, and statutory editorial-content provisions under Section 7 of the founding law. Galatz operates within a statutory framework recognising the station and has broadcast continuously since 24 September 1950 under Israel Defense Forces operation and Ministry of Defense supervision; petitioners and the Attorney-General argued during the cycle that, because Galei Tzahal is recognised in primary legislation, closure could not be effected solely by administrative decision, though the High Court had not issued a final ruling at the close of the review window.

The cluster’s two distinct governance pathways are structurally different. IPBC’s governance pathway runs through the statutory search-committee process, Council and Director-General established by the 2014 Public Broadcasting Law, with ministerial involvement limited by the law and repeatedly contested before the High Court during the cycle. Galatz’s pathway runs through the Ministry of Defense and IDF chain of command, with a civilian commander operating within the station’s military-institutional framework. Both pathways came under political pressure during the 2025/26 cycle, and in both cases judicial intervention became the principal external safeguard.

Government and political context

Israel is a parliamentary democracy with a President serving as head of state and a Prime Minister serving as head of government. Throughout the 2025/26 review period, Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has remained in office, with Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud) and Defense Minister Israel Katz (Likud) the two principal political actors whose decisions have shaped the cycle’s institutional events. Both ministers continued in post throughout the cycle, and the broader political environment includes the ongoing Gaza war, the pre-election political environment ahead of the next Israeli legislative election, and a coordinated coalition campaign on multiple media-policy fronts that has been characterised by Israeli media observers as a sustained pressure on independent public-service broadcasting.

Cluster events during the 2025/26 cycle

The cycle produced two distinct but parallel institutional storms for the cluster’s two outlets, each documented in detail in the respective outlet profiles.

For IPBC, the cycle’s defining institutional feature was the prolonged dysfunction of its governing Council, below its statutory quorum since November 2024 when five members’ terms ended without replacement, and the resulting operation on a continuation budget since the start of 2026. Communications Minister Karhi appointed retired judge Nechama Munitz as search committee chair in March 2025, then dismissed her on 17 September 2025; the High Court of Justice ruled in May 2026 that the dismissal was invalid and ordered the appointment process to advance, with an earlier 2025 High Court ruling having already limited Karhi’s role in the appointment process. Two main legislative tracks remained pending at the close of the review window: first, a Distel Atbaryan private-member initiative targeting IPBC’s news operation, budget and revenue sources (including elements cutting the budget from approximately ILS 700 million to ILS 500 million and restricting advertising and archival revenues); and second, a separate budget-control bill promoted by the coalition that would replace the fixed statutory funding mechanism with annual government allocation, which advanced for first reading on 25 May 2026 after the Knesset House Committee transferred it from the Economics Committee to the Finance Committee. IPBC Director-General Golan Yochpaz continued in post throughout the cycle and publicly defended IPBC in international public-broadcasting contexts including the European Broadcasting Union proceedings clearing Israel to compete in Eurovision 2026.

For Galatz, the cycle’s defining institutional event was Defense Minister Katz’s decision to close the station. Katz announced his closure decision on 12 November 2025, setting a final broadcast date of 1 March 2026, on the basis of an advisory committee report submitted that month. The cabinet unanimously approved the closure on 22 December 2025, with Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly endorsing the decision. The High Court of Justice issued an interim order on 29 December 2025 freezing implementation of the closure until a final ruling, and a further conditional order in early February 2026 requiring the government to file an affidavit by 15 March 2026 explaining why the closure decision should not be cancelled. Galatz continued broadcasting through the SMM 2025/26 review window. Galatz commander Tal Lev-Ram, who was appointed by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on 31 January 2024 despite Communications Minister Karhi’s January 2024 opposition to his nomination, publicly opposed the closure decision and committed Galatz to legal challenge.

Outlook

The Israeli state-broadcasting architecture enters the next cycle with both cluster outlets in unresolved institutional jeopardy. For the 2026 cycle, both IPBC and Galatz retain their Independent State-Funded and State-Managed (ISFM) classification on the strength of the statutory frameworks still in force, the editorially independent newsroom operations still functioning at both outlets, and the High Court interventions that have preserved the regulatory architecture against ministerial action. The next cycle’s classifications will depend on the resolution of the IPBC Council-quorum dispute, the passage or non-passage of the IPBC budget-control and news-curtailment legislation, the High Court ruling on the Galatz closure decision, and whether the Israeli political environment continues to produce sustained pressure on public-service broadcasting or shifts to a different institutional configuration. The SMM will continue to monitor both outlets closely and will reassess the cluster’s classifications and watch-list status at the close of the next review window.

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