Bill seeks to cancel limitations on campaign ads on TV and radio

If the bill passes, election campaign ads would be allowed to air more than 60 days before election day.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni are depicted on Likud and Zionist Union campaign billboards in Tel Aviv March 15 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni are depicted on Likud and Zionist Union campaign billboards in Tel Aviv March 15
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Election ads could be broadcast on television and radio at any time if a bill by Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked becomes law.
The legislation, which Shaked submitted on Wednesday, seeks to erase the clause in the Election Campaign Law stating that there may not be campaign ads in broadcast media for 60 days before an election.
“New media changed the way the [traditional] media behaves,” the bill reads. “In today’s reality, there is an absurd situation in which campaign advertisements on television and radio are prohibited for 60 days before an election, while this does not apply on the Internet.”
The bill explains that, in light of the difficulty in limiting what is published online, the restrictions on television and radio have become obsolete and should be canceled.
According to Shaked, “in an age in which information on new media flows freely and is not limited, in which a sneeze can become viral, blocking other media is meaningless.”