Mass media in Israel

During the eighties and nineties, the Israeli press underwent a process of significant change as the media gradually came to be controlled by a limited number of organizations, whereas the papers published by political parties began to disappear.

Today, three large, privately owned conglomerates based in Tel Aviv dominate the mass media in Israel.

[2] The history of the press began in 1863, before Israeli independence and during the Ottoman Empire, with Ha-Levanon and Havatzelet being the first weekly Hebrew newspapers established.

[3] The Israeli government generally respects freedom of the press, which is protected by the Basic Laws of Israel and independent judiciary.

[13] According to The Guardian, Haaretz "had published a series of investigations of wrongdoing or abuses by senior officials and the armed forces, and has long been in the crosshairs of the current government.

The 2013 report described Israel as having "the freest press in the region" but downgraded its status from "Free" to "Partly Free" in response to "the indictment of journalist Uri Blau for possession of state secrets, the first time this law had been used against the press in several decades, as well as instances of politicized interference with the content of the Israel Broadcasting Authority radio programs and concerns surrounding the license renewal of television's Channel 10.

[15] The report stated that though the media is generally free to criticize the government, print articles remain subject to censorship by the military, and that right-ward leaning trends under the Netanyahu administration further threatened public faith in the press.