By The Jerusalem Post (World News) | Created at 2024-10-30 13:45:05 | Updated at 2024-10-30 19:19:44
6 hours ago
Attorney general's office said it was a "severe violation of the constitutional right to privacy."
By ELIAV BREUER OCTOBER 30, 2024 14:29
The coalition advanced a bill to enable government control over television rating method (Illustrative).
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Israel's governing coalition passed a preliminary vote on Wednesday on a bill to enable the Communications Minister to determine the method of measuring viewer rating of Israel's television channels.
Viewer rating measurements collect data, including the number of viewers and the demographic makeup of Israel's television programs.
Israel's current measurement system, which since 1995 has been run by the independent and not-for-profit Israeli Audience Research Board ("Va'adat Hamidrug"), is based on a technology called "people-meter", a device installed on the television set that can record viewed content throughout all hours of the day.
The device identifies which household member is watching at any moment through a special remote control. The sample of households where the measuring device is installed, called a panel, includes some 700 families comprised of 2,200 individuals, which represent Israel's demographic makeup. The demographic characteristics of the viewers are taken in advance and can be cross-referenced with viewing data monitored by the device over time.
The rating measurements serve a number of purposes. First and foremost, they serve as a shared mechanism for broadcasting bodies and advertisers to determine the price of a minute of airtime on a given channel at a given time. They also enable private broadcasting executives and public broadcasters to determine the success of specific shows.
The bill's supporters, namely Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi (Likud), have argued that the "people-meter" mechanism is outdated, as it does not effectively monitor today's diversified viewing methods, which include streaming and internet providers. The bill will enable the government to create a better and more trustworthy system for rating measurements, supporters have said.
However, the bill's detractors, including members of the opposition, broadcasters, and the attorney general's office, have argued that it could serve as a tool for the government to influence the ratings themselves, and thus the income from advertising of different broadcasts. This in turn could serve as a financial sanction that the government can wield against unfriendly content. While many detractors have agreed that the measurement system needs to be updated, they have argued that this must be done without government intervention.
The bill also requires that television broadcasters display the new rating measurements in real time during peak viewing hours. It also requires that broadcasters submit a monthly report detailing viewing data, including the number of viewers of the broadcast by hour, means of viewing the broadcast, and population segmentation by age, sector, gender, and place of residence.
Proposal unconstitutional, says Levin
In a letter to Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Sunday, ahead of the bill's approval in the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, Deputy Attorney General Meir Levin (Economic Law) wrote that the proposal was unconstitutional, as it was "a severe and disproportionate violation of the right to privacy, and within that, the right to freedom of expression and press, a violation stemming from political government involvement in the broadcasting market."
According to Levin, a chief concern was that while the "panel" of families who currently participate in the measurement system do so voluntarily, the new bill would collect data about household's viewing tendencies without their consent.
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"The very act of compulsorily collecting information from the entire public, without explicit consent given by each person about whom information is collected, and its systematic transfer to government authorities - broadcast regulators and the Ministry of Communications - amounts to a severe violation of the constitutional right to privacy," Levin wrote.
Rather than the current bill, which was officially proposed by Likud MK Shalom Danino, Levin suggested that a new government bill be brought forwards after taking into account and amending it to address these constitutional concerns.
