Ethiopian-born Israel Radio former director gets 2nd chance

Tsega Melaku will be given a second hearing to tell the IBA tenders committee why she should not have been dismissed.

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Israel Radio, Army Radio_311 (photo credit: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Israel Radio, Army Radio_311
(photo credit: REUTERS/Nir Elias)
Tsega Melaku will be given a second hearing to tell the IBA tenders committee why she should not have been dismissed as head of Israel Radio’s Reshet Alef.
She had held the position for more than three years. The Ethiopian-born journalist was the first member of her community to be given a managerial position on a non-immigrant station under the auspices of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.
The tenders committee, which has been criticized in the Knesset as being a rubber stamp for the head of Israel Radio, said it was eager to disprove such allegations, and in an effort to demonstrate transparency had taken the unusual step of allowing Melaku a second hearing. The hearing should take place within a few days.
The tenders committee has been busy with meeting applicants for other tenders this week, and as soon as these meetings are completed, it will be Melaku’s turn.
Meanwhile the appointment of Avishai Falhi, who was to take over from Melaku, has been deferred until a final decision with regard to Melaku is reached. In the interim, Israel Radio CEO Mickey Miro has taken responsibility for Reshet Alef.
In other Israel Radio news, Keren Neubach, who was removed from anchoring Channel 1’s Mabat Sheni (“Second Look”) program for supposedly not being sufficiently telegenic, was on Monday feted by the radio.
Neubach is one of the recipients of the Emil Grunzweig Memorial Prize awarded by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. The announcement of her win of the prize named after the slain Peace Now activist was broadcast on several news bulletins, and it was easy to discern that her colleagues delighted in Neubach’s triumph.
Meanwhile, veteran radio newsmen Danny Dvorin and Shimon Vilnai have been named this year’s recipients of the annual IBA director-general’s prize in memory of Ilan Roeh, an Israel Radio news reporter who together with Israeli military personnel, was killed by the explosion of a roadside bomb in southern Lebanon in February 1999.
The awards ceremony will take place at Beit Sokolow in Tel Aviv on the anniversary of his death.