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Why is Israeli media attacking itself?

Freedom of speech, vital to any democracy, is under attack by the Israeli media.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen on monitors before the evening news bulletin at Channel 10's control room in Jerusalem November 18, 2015. Critics say Netanyahu, known as "Bibi," is hitting the wrong note when it comes to the media, weakening press freedom and holding sway over TV broadcasters in a country that bills itself as the Middle East's only true democracy. Picture taken November 18, 2015. To match Insight ISRAEL-NETANYAHU/MEDIA REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun  - RTX1VG2J
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“Magazine,” a Saturday night news show on Channel 10, announced Feb. 20 that it had a major scoop. Dor Glick, its correspondent in Germany, had obtained exclusive footage of film director Udi Aloni referring to the Israeli government as “fascist.” The incident took place toward the end of this year's Berlinale, one of the most important film festivals in the world. Aloni’s entry, “Junction 48,” won the prestigious Audience Award in the Panorama fiction film category.

“Pay close attention to what our Channel 10 news camera caught,” the correspondent stressed to the show’s host and his audience at home, drawing everyone’s attention to his journalistic coup. “He didn’t realize that he was on camera.” Glick couldn’t emphasize it enough. He continued to repeat Aloni’s comment that by providing Israel with submarines, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was aiding and abetting Israel’s fascist government. On three separate occasions, the correspondent and hostess reiterated that Aloni's award-winning film, about a hip-hop performance in the Israeli town of Lod that was used to protest the occupation, had been funded by the Ministry of Culture and the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts. “This was highlighted at the beginning and end of the film,” Glick noted.

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