Posted on 10/19/2003 4:45:55 PM PDT by tubavil
HENDEL: WE'LL WORK HARD TO OVERTURN ANTI-ARUTZ-7 LEGISLATION The Cabinet approved today proposed legislation granting the police broad authorities in the fight against pirate radio stations. Spearheaded by the Shinui party ministers, who claim that the stations endanger air traffic, the bill would impose stiff fines and even imprisonment for those who advertise on the unlicensed stations. Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said that the goal was to end financial support for the stations. "We will not allow right-wing and hareidi elements to use this public resource [airwaves] and make a mockery of the law," he said.
Lapid said at today's Cabinet meeting today that whoever objects to this bill will have "blood on his hands" if there is an air accident. Housing Minister Effie Eitam (NRP) said that Lapid was resorting to "verbal terrorism," and said that the entire purpose of the legislation was to destroy Arutz-7. He, together with Ministers Zevulun Orlev (NRP), Avigdor Lieberman (National Union), and the Likud's Uzi Landau and Yisrael Katz, voted against the proposal. Arutz-7 broadcasts have not, in fact, been accused of disturbing air traffic radio messages.
Minister Eitam told Arutz-7 today, "We voted against the proposed legislation because it is just a ruse to close down Arutz-7. The timing, the extremist formulation, and the fact that they are doing nothing to take care of Arutz-7 shows it's just a way of closing down the voice of a very large listening public."
Deputy Education Minister Tzvi Hendel (National Union), who has been a staunch activist on behalf of legislation to legalize Arutz-7 in the past, blames the Likud ministers for "chickening out and not objecting to this demagogic bill, whose only goal is to silence a very large and important public." The Knesset passed a law legalizing Arutz-7 in 1999, but the law was challenged in court by several left-wing MKs. The Court then issued a restraining order freezing the law's implementation, and in March 2002, it delivered an almost unprecedented ruling and overturned the Knesset law.
It was reported that Prime Minister and Minister Ehud Olmert of the Likud said today that they would try to advance parallel legislation on behalf of legalizing Arutz-7. Hendel, however, said that he does not believe that these efforts will bear fruit.
"There is a woman in the Justice Ministry," Hendel said today, "named Didi Lachman-Messer, who, every time there is a new Justice Minister, tries in every which way to get a law passed against Arutz-7... We'll have to work hard, but I will make sure to get the necessary majority in the Knesset - including from among the Likud MKs - to defeat the law. As the youth sang yesterday during the Simchat Torah dancing, 'the eternal nation is not afraid of a long road.'"
I like Hendel's work. But I like Bach's even better.
I guess now speech is a public good, and therefore it belongs to the government.
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