El National: Israel tries to Pass a Law to Prevent Foreign Control of the Media

El National December 19,2009

El national was critical of a new law that Israel is trying to pass, known as "Anti- Adelson", that assures that non-Israeli citizens will have no control over the media. The law is named after Sheldon Adelson, an American close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and editor of Israel Hayom, a newspaper that was extremely critical of Ehud Olmert last term. The 19 representatives who support this law, which already applies to television, hope it passes in 45 days and is not annuled by the legislature.The new law will ensure that no one media source exerts too much power within society. The article goes on to say that Haaretz claimed that behind the law there is a public relations group, the newspaper Maariv, hired to exert pressure on the passage of the law.
This article is not highly critical of Israel, but you can tell that they do not necessarily agree with the law. In the end when they say Haaretz claims there is one group exerting pressure they are trying to inject the idea into the readers mind that Israel is being a bit hypocritical. That they do not want the media to be controlled by a singular powerful group, yet they hired one for the passage of the law. It is interesting that Venezuela is criticizing Israel for their media bans, when Venezuela has one of the most politically- controlled media in the world. Chavez dictates what can and cannot be played on the television and the radio and what is written in the newspapers. Whenever Chavez wants to make a statement he literally puts himself on all the television and radio channels for unlimited time. Venezuela completely lacks free speech, even by its own citizens. In a country where free speech is unacceptable it makes it impossible for the Jews to stand up for themselves in situations where the media is highly critical of them. This just adds more national anti- Semitism putting the Jews in a more critical position every day.

Link to Original Article:http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/p_contenido.php?q=nodo/113621/Medios%20bajo%20ataque/Israel-promueve-ley-para-impedir-que-extranjeros-controlen-prensa