Senior commentator: In suspending Erel Segal, the corporation made a very serious mistake

February 15, 2020   

Amit Segal, the senior political commentator for News 12, criticizes the decision of the Kan Broadcasting Corporation to suspend Erel Segal, after he was photographed in a video with Prime Minister Netanyahu and media figures Yinon Magal and Shimon Riklin. "The video of media figures Shimon Riklin, Yinon Magal and Erel Segal is unusual – I don't know many presenters who jiggle and play guitar. But journalism is changing, and the definition of 'media' includes a lot of things," Segal wrote in a column he published on News 12. "For example, 30 years ago there was no studio where journalists sat on a Friday evening and expressed their opinions – there was a perception that everything had to be objective and mummified." According to Segal, the Kan executives knew who Segal was when they brought him to the corporation: "A man with opinions, who refused a rally spot on the Likud list, so he doesn't do anything in exchange for favors. He was not brought up to the standard of a person who brings news. "In suspending Segal, the corporation made a very serious mistake. I can think of several people in the corporation who are not problematic for playing guitars – but for what they say over the airwaves, without anyone stopping them: for example, a radio show that promotes a very specific economic position every day for years; or the new radio show of Yigal Guetta and Shelly Yachimovich, two wonderful and interesting radio personalities – and also former members of Knesset with a very strong position against Netanyahu.".