Prime Minister Golda Meir announced to the Cabinet today that the plan for a Ministry of Information to be in charge of Israeli information abroad had been dropped and that service would remain within the province of the Foreign Ministry. The decision was regarded as a victory for Foreign Minister Abba Eban who had strenuously opposed transfer of the responsibility for information overseas from his ministry. Mrs. Meir had announced last year after formation of the present Cabinet that she favored a comprehensive Ministry of Information and Israel Galili, Minister without Portfolio, had been regarded as the main candidate to head that ministry. Mr. Eban’s arguments that political information abroad could not be separated from diplomatic activity, however, apparently carried the day.
The prime minister said that she hoped to be able to inform the Cabinet within the week who would have parliamentary responsibility for information in Israel and for the Broadcasting Authority. Mr. Galili had been charged with this in the previous Cabinet but he announced earlier this year that he would not resume these responsibilities if information abroad was not made one of his functions. For the time being, Mrs. Meir herself is answerable in the Knesset for the information services and the radio and television authority. The Cabinet voted today not to contest the Supreme Court writ issued last November ordering the Prime Minister to desist from interference with Friday night television. The two members of the National Religious Party in the Cabinet and Minister without Portfolio Menachem Beigin of the Gahal voted against the decision.
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