Insult was heaped on injury for Israel’s hundreds of thousands of basketball fans, and other viewers, when striking technicians blacked out television Tuesday night after cutting short the live, via satellite, transmission of the National Basketball Association All-Star game from the U.S. in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
The technicians said their wildcat strike was to protest the earlier suspension of Zion Swiri, chairman of their workers committee, for “pulling the plug” on the basketball match. Swiri said he was simply abiding by Histadrut’s agreement with the Broadcast Authority management stipulating the maximum number of hours the technical staff should work.
Israel television normally goes off the air at midnight. The basketball game ran into overtime.
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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.
