LIVE German 2025 Election Results

Netanyahu’s government media reforms face criticism over risks to press freedom

Get you up to speed: How Netanyahu gov’t media reforms risk deepening Israeli press bias

What remains unclear — It is not specified whether the High Court will allow any parts of the legislation to take effect before the October 27 election.

Netanyahu’s government media reforms face criticism over risks to press freedom

News|MediaHow Netanyahu gov’t media reforms risk deepening Israeli press bias

Critics decry Israel’s sweeping media reforms, warning of further risks to press freedom and election integrity.

Published On 25 Jul 202625 Jul 2026

Media freedom organisations and opposition lawmakers have criticised sweeping media reforms pushed through by Israel’s right-wing coalition as part of a legislative blitz before the parliament’s dissolution in advance of elections later this year.

The parliament, or Knesset, last week approved the bill that could give the government a far greater say in Israel’s news and broadcast sectors. The controversial measure strips away traditional oversight safeguards, eliminates requirements for minimum journalism standards and lifts longstanding limits on cross-ownership, among others.

Following the July 17 vote, watchdog groups, including the Union of Journalists in Israel, along with opposition parties, successfully petitioned the High Court of Justice to freeze parts of the legislation. They warned that some provisions that were set to take effect immediately, including the removal of limits on ownership of multiple media outlets and the stripping away of newsroom standards, could permanently distort the media landscape before the October 27 election, potentially influencing its outcome.

The government has until Sunday to respond, after which the court will decide whether to keep the freeze, widen it, or allow the provisions to take effect. Other, less contentious and immediate sections of the law were left to stand.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not vote on the measure. He is currently bound by a 2020 conflict-of-interest agreement that bars him from participating in government decisions that could affect his ongoing corruption trial, where, among other charges, he stands accused of using his position to unduly influence media coverage of his administration.

Nevertheless, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi thanked Netanyahu directly, saying: “Mr prime minister, I want to thank you and tell you that the mission you gave me four years ago – to deliver right-wing reform of the media – was today successfully completed.”

Israeli media reported that such a directive by Netanyahu could be a violation of his agreement. Neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Communications Ministry responded to WTX News’s queries over whether Netanyahu’s role in the legislation’s passage represented a conflict of interest. However, Karhi subsequently claimed that he had secured a legal opinion determining that the prime minister was not in breach of the conflict-of-interest agreement.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi have proven repeatedly that they are enemies of independent journalism in Israel,” Martin Roux, of the Reporters Without Borders media monitor, told WTX News.

“This means they’re attacking every Israeli citizen’s right to reliable information from diverse sources. This has been true for years, and it is becoming more obvious every day as the legislative elections, set for the end of October, approach. It’s all about controlling the narrative,” he said.

In a social media post, Karhi claimed the new legislation would bring “more right-wing coverage and less regulation”.

“After a determined struggle against every possible element from the deep state, tycoons, attorneys, officials and fearmongering networks – we managed to pass the right-wing media reform.”

‘Boosting propaganda channels’

However, for many observers, there was little new in overhauling media that had grown used to toeing the government line, with critical coverage of the multiple wars that Israel has engaged in and the international outrage that many have caused typically relegated to the sidelines of the national conversation.

“The reforms are part of Netanyahu’s ongoing media overhaul – undermining the remains of critical reporting and journalistic independence in the country, while boosting Netanyahu’s propaganda channels,” London-based Israeli academic and media analyst Ayala Panievsky told WTX News.

Donald Trump speaks after presenting the “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 22, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. The annual meeting of political and business leaders comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Europe over a range of issues, including Trump’s vow to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)” fetchpriority=”low”>Israel’s Channel 14 has consistently pushed the ‘big lie’, that Trump won the 2020 US elections, leading some to wonder if the channel would be prepared to do the same again in Israel later this year [Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

She cited the far-right Channel 14, which she said emboldened Israel’s war crimes and offered unflagging support to what she described as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.

“In 2020, they amplified ‘the Big Lie’ in the US elections, claiming Trump won the election – they might therefore act similarly following the Israeli general elections in October, if Netanyahu’s coalition indeed loses,” said Panievsky, echoing similar concerns among academics and legal analysts sparked by accusations from lawmakers within Netanyahu’s Likud party that the acting head of the Central Elections Committee, Dean Livne, was “clearly politically biased”.

Analysts and observers from across Israel have long pointed to the strongly nationalist undertone of much of Israel’s current affairs coverage and the absence of space given to Palestinians and Palestinian suffering.

When the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the findings as “distorted and false“, a framing echoed across domestic outlets rather than scrutinised.

A subsequent Molad report found only 3 percent of Channel 12’s early war coverage referenced Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with just two of 206 visuals showing Palestinian civilian casualties. Elsewhere, allegations of Israeli war crimes, including sexual abuse, are either omitted or given pro-government framing, observers told WTX News.

Thick smoke rises following an Israeli air strike on a residential area in the Al-Jalaa neighbourhood despite the ‘ceasefire’ [Saeed MMT Jaras/Anadolu]

“The Israeli media just doesn’t feature Gaza. It’s not there,” political analyst Ori Goldberg said from outside Tel Aviv. “There’s no sense of solidarity with the journalists killed there, or those they don’t let in. They’re just not mentioned.”

Similarly, discussion panels on the various wars that the Netanyahu administration had embarked upon were typically staffed by ex-generals, who had no question with the need for war, only differences over its prosecution, said Goldberg.

However, even this relative compliance was not enough for a prime minister fighting an election that had come to rely on the appearance of forward momentum and paper enemies to sustain his political project.

“Netanyahu always needs to be seen to be pushing the envelope,” Goldberg added. “He needs a media that will give barely critical coverage of his every word, but one that he can still present as the enemy within.”

Over 220,000 people evacuated as wildfires spread in France and Spain

Get you up to speed: More than 220,000 evacuated as ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires spread across France and Spain | News World

What remains unclear — The exact number of people who have been forced to evacuate from affected areas in Spain is not specified.

Over 220,000 people evacuated as wildfires spread in France and Spain

British tourists had to flee their hotels in the middle of the night as raging wildfires spread across France and Spain, driving more than 220,000 people from their homes.

Thousands escaped by car and boat when French authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular spot on the Atlantic Coast.

They described huge ash clouds ‘basically blocking out the sun’, with one resident in a nearby village made to leave their home saying: ‘It’s totally apocalyptic.’

And there does not appear to be any sign of reprieve from the heat, with weather forecasts suggesting temperatures will rise sharply again next week.

Some 141,000 fled their homes in the Gironde and Landes regions in France, the French interior ministry said.

Holidaymakers staying at a Holiday Inn near the airport in Bordeaux, where flames are now headed toward, were woken at 3.30am and told the hotel would be closing due to the approaching smoke.

Sign up for all of the latest stories

French firefighters trying to extinguish the wildfire northwest of Bordeaux (Picture: AFP)

Nicola Smith, 49, from Jersey, who is away with her husband Martin, daughter, granddaughter and six other relatives, told the Daily Mail: ‘We were all fast asleep when a member of hotel staff knocked on the door about 3.30am and said that we were having to evacuate.

‘It was a shock to the system and quite dramatic but I’d been getting alerts on my phone all night by the local French authorities warning about other areas nearby being evacuated.’

Martin, 55, added: ‘It’s not great to be honest but what can you do?

‘Apparently everywhere is being evacuated because of all the smoke drifting across to Bordeaux from the fire.

‘I must admit you could really smell the smoke when we first arrived, there was a kind of haze in the air.’

Madrid on July 24, 2026. Spain declared a national emergency in the Madrid region and in the province of Avila, near the capital, on July 23, 2026, in the wake of several wildfires burning out of control. Scientists have long warned that climatechange caused by human use of fossil fuels will make periods of drought more intense and longer-lasting, creating the ideal conditions for wildfires. (Photo by Cesar MANSO / AFP via Getty Images)” decoding=”async” loading=”lazy”/>
Firefighters battle a wildfire in Cebreros area, near Avila, west of Madrid (Picture: AFP via Getty)

A forest burning in Biscarrosse, southern France (Picture: EPA)

Beachgoers sit on the beach of Moutchic in Lacanau, southwestern France, as clouds of smoke rise into the sky from a wildfire (Picture: AFP via Getty)

In central Spain, 60,000 were forced from their homes, according to the Spanish interior ministry.

Spain declared its first ever wildfire-related national emergency in response to the disaster.

Huge blazes merged outside Madrid, with regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso saying: ‘This is the worst wildfire in our region’s history.

‘It’s the perfect storm of very high temperatures and ceaseless winds that aren’t letting up.’

The flames of a wildfire in Cebreros area (Picture: AFP via Getty)

A Salamanca unit’s firefighter cools off while battling a wildfire in Cebreros area (Picture: AFP via Getty)

In southwest France, around 110,000 people, many of them tourists, were told ⁠to leave as two major fires threatened homes and campsites, officials said.

Interior minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster TF1 that fires were heading towards Bordeaux.

Yoan Urien, who fled late on Thursday after police ordered his neighbourhood in the town of Biscarrosse to evacuate, said it was possible to see the fires from his home.

‘We could see the clouds becoming darker and darker,’ ​the 26-year-old told Reuters.

Marie Duelz, a 51-year-old Belgian tourist vacationing at Cap Ferret, said she saw ‘a cloud of ash that was blocking the sun, basically’.

The other major fire, which began in the nearby village of Saumos, north of Cap Ferret, is threatening to cut off the only road out of the peninsula and is the largest so far this season in France.

It has torn through more than 14,000 hectares of forest and destroyed more than 100 homes and one campsite, officials ​said.

‘It breaks my heart. Because it’s such a pleasant place to live, seeing it go up in smoke is truly sad,’ Corinne Paillaube said.

‘It’s totally apocalyptic,’ said Ambre Dubos, from the nearby Landes region.

In Spain, more than 19,000 people were ordered to evacuate from towns in the mountains west of Madrid.

‘I had ⁠to run from my house. There was a ball of fire. If I’d taken five more minutes, it would have wiped us out,’ Enrique Martin said in a shelter in Cebreros, west of Madrid.

A third fire in Avila province was on the verge or may have already merged with the two in Madrid, Nicanor Sen, the government representative for the Castile and Leon region, told reporters.

Spanish police said they had arrested one person and were investigating another suspected of starting that fire by using heavy machinery in a prohibited area.

The area west of Madrid, where many residents from the capital have second homes, is densely populated.

In just one development 43 homes ​had been destroyed, Diaz Ayuso said.

It is the second consecutive year that Spain has faced a particularly destructive fire season.

More than 29 major fires have broken out in Spain so far this year, damaging a surface area five times greater than at the same stage in 2025, when a record area was destroyed, Environment Minister Sara Aagesen said in ​a social media post.

Wildfires have burned more land in Europe already this year than the annual average in the past two ​decades, data shows as the world’s fastest-warming continent ⁠has endured three stifling, virtually back-to-back heatwaves so far this year.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, destructive storms.

Greece was sending two firefighting aircraft to Spain, and Croatia provided a similar plane and staff to aid France while Italy dispatched a firefighting plane to Tunisia which also has wildfires.

Comment now

Comments

Add WTX as a Preferred Source on Google

Add as preferred source