The Cabinet today expressed extreme displeasure with the government-owned Israel Broadcasting Authority for screening television interviews over the weekend with Mayors Bassam Shaka of Nablus and Karim Khallaf of Ramallah who were removed from office last week on grounds that they are agents of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor told reporters that the condemnation of the interviews was unanimous. The Cabinet, nevertheless, voted 9-7 to approve a three-month budget for the IBA. Premier Menachem Begin and six other ministers had argued for a one-month budget extension to demonstrate the government’s anger over what it considered an affront to its authority by a governmental agency.
Naor, who personally takes a hard line on such matters, said the State-owned media should “be loyal to the State.” He contended that broadcasting the interviews was tantamount to “incitement against the State.”
The IBA, a quasi-autonomous agency, has always enjoyed a certain amount of freedom in selecting broadcast material and occasionally this has brought its staff into conflict with its government-appointed management. Yosef Lapid, director general of television, who was called before the Cabinet today, explained that IBA staff members had threatened to strike and shut down radio and television if the interviews were not screened.
He said that he consulted with other senior executives and decided that the damage to Israel from a strike would outweigh the damage done by televising the interviews with Shaka and Khallaf.
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