The Israel Broadcast Authority’s first English-language newscast for television aired Sunday night, after eight years of planning that included seemingly endless arguments over who would bear responsibility for the service.
The 15-minute English news bulletin will be broadcast at 8 p.m. each weekday evening, following the regularly scheduled Arabic-language broadcasts and before the start of the news in Hebrew.
On Friday nights, news bulletins in English will be broadcast a half-hour early.
English news broadcasts from Jordan have long been available, albeit with a different political slant. A proposal to air Israel Television’s new English news program at 10 p.m., to directly compete with the Jordanian broadcast, was scrapped because it would pre-empt prime-time favorites, such as the American program “Dynasty.”
Israel Television’s Anan Safadi, a veteran journalist, has been appointed executive producer of the new program.
Safadi, who is from a prominent Arab family in Beit She’an, is equally at home in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
