Broadcast Strikers Finding Little Audience Support

Radio and television journalists, in the second week of their strike for higher pay, are not getting the public support they had hoped for.

The reason does not seem to be public resentment over being deprived of daily news programs and bulletins. Although the Israel Broadcast Authority’s main evening newscast, “Mabat,” draws more than a million viewers, a random street poll last week elicited few positive comments about the state-owned IBA.

There are plenty of other broadcast news outlets in Israel, and the striking IBA employees are beginning to realize the bitter fact that they are not only considered expendable but, as a group, are not too well liked by the public.

The IBA has always been a whipping boy. The left believes it is too government-oriented. Right-wingers charge it is run by a “leftist Mafia.” This despite the fact that Israel TV news reporting has been favorably compared to television news in the United States, England and West Germany for high standards and fairness. The IBA journalists say their unpopularity is the price of their professionalism.

There are other reasons why many Israelis are unconcerned by the IBA news blackout. Cinema owners, cafe proprietors and operators of video cassette libraries are positively delighted– their business has improved.

ALTERNATIVES ABOUND

Moreover, electronically wired households– the majority in this country of a little over four million — still have a substantial menu of entertainment and information to choose from. The IBA’s four radio bands continue to provide wall-to-wall “good” music and “pop” music, talk shows and documentaries. For television viewers there are the usual reruns of American sitcoms and action-adventure programs.

Educational television, privately funded by the Rothschild family, broadcasts from dawn to dusk using Communications Ministry transmitters. Children’s television is unaffected by the strike. An Israeli version of “Sesame Street,” produced under license from U.S. Public Broadcasting, continues to delight kids whose favorite puppet characters speak dubbed-in Hebrew.

The slack in newscasts has been taken up by the Israel Defense Force (Army) radio station, staffed largely by regulars and reserve soldiers. It scored a major newsbeat with three-hour live coverage of the arrival of longtime refusenik Ida Nudel in Israel last Thursday night. IBA coverage was aborted by the strike.

Israelis may also tune into the news and music mix of Abie Nathan’s radio ship anchored just outside of territorial waters. Similar “pirate” radios have sprung up in recent years and the authorities are at a loss to silence them.

Advertisers are pleased that the IBA strike has given impetus to the experimental “second channel,” which will become Israel’s first commercial television outlet once the Knesset agrees on appropriate legislation. Last weekend it broadcast a full-length, first-run movie in cooperation with the Cinema Owners Association.

The IBA’s all-day Arabic radio and television service has not been interrupted by the strike. Inasmuch as almost every set-owner has installed antennas capable of picking up Jordan’s two television channels, Israelis are not at a loss for music, movies and news, albeit with an Arab cast.

These many alternatives, and the negative public attitude, may well defeat the strikers, no matter that their demands seem fair to many. They are asking for the same pay scale enjoyed by their print colleagues. They are members of the same Journalists Association.

But while Israel’s daily newspapers and magazines are privately owned, except for a few political party organs, the electronic journalists, employed by a state agency, are considered civil servants.

The Finance Ministry has refused to consider pay raises for any one group in the public sector lest all demand the same treatment. The IBA management says its hands are tied.

COSTING LARGE SUMS OF MONEY

But, meanwhile, the strike is costing the government large sums of money. The IBA is paying $1,500 an hour to the government’s telephone and postal engineering company, Bezek, to display an identification pattern on television screens during the strike, now in its 13th day.

So far the IBA has laid out $490,000 to Bezek, Hadashot reported Monday, An IBA spokesperson explained that “If we clear the frequency, someone else could grab it.”

Meanwhile, some Knesset members and Israelis in the West Bank have expressed concern that curtailment of the IBA Arabic language news service due to the strike works to the advantage of the Arab world media, which disseminate false reports on recent incidents in the administered territories.