The People Shall Dwell Alone: The Effect of Transfrontier Broadcasting on Freedom of Speech and Information in Israel

The regulation of transfrontier broadcasting in Israel has served a system of information and cultural control motivated by a nationalistic-protectionist ideology ever since the 1960s. Although the policies regulating Israeli broadcasting have at times shown greater openness to Western values and international influences, this article demonstrates through an analysis of legal documents how regulators have reverted in recent years to a more restrictive policy regarding the free flow of transborder communications. This reversion has occurred in a changing technological world combining new cultural goals with "old school" fear of propaganda. For decades, lawmakers and regulators have been devising and re-devising ways to prevent foreign channels from broadcasting in Israel. At first such actions were attempts to avoid the influence of hostile propaganda and later were efforts to protect heavily regulated government licensed channels, whose remit serves the government's ideology. Using a critical interpretive methodology, the study describes and analyzes the evolution of Israeli regulatory policy over the past four decades.