Australian Broadcast Company (ABC) Radio - 3 June 2004 "Media Report" - Radio Program Transcript If you don't want to read it all, just Click here to skip to where I speak Now to another story of media operations conducted under close scrutiny, albeit with a surprising degree of autonomy. Like many defence forces around the world, the Israeli army has its own media operation. But rather than some predictable weekly newspaper extolling the virtues of the IDF and its operations, the Israeli army has its own radio station. Staffed by a mix of male and female conscripts and some older civilians, Army Radio began in Israel's earliest days, with programs for soldiers away from home. Since then it's diversified its output, taken on advertising and even surpassed the public broadcaster to become Israel's most popular radio station. Right now, in reporting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Army Radio reporters are engaged in a precarious balancing act between seemingly incompatible roles: independent journalists as against soldiers. The ABC's Jonathan Gadir prepared the following report. THEME - HEBREW LANGUAGE Jonathan Gadir: The signature tune of Israel Army Radio with its high-rating news every hour on the hour. Yaron Ezrahi: The Army Radio in Israel is perhaps one of the most paradoxical institutions anywhere in the world. Jonathan Gadir: Professor Yaron Ezrahi is an expert on the Israeli media scene from the Hebrew University. Yaron Ezrahi: At times it's much more critical of the government than the public radio and the commercial radio, and the reason is partly because they are very young people there and the style of young people who are recruited to the Army Radio is much less wooly and much less subject to authority instructions. I was very impressed, several times, with the extent to which the IDF Radio was able to direct criticism and to bring people who criticised the Israeli Army, including myself, into the broadcast. Jonathan Gadir: Itai Engel was Foreign Editor of IDF Radio, starting out there as a young conscript. Lately he's covered the war in Afghanistan and Iraq for Israel's Channel 2 TV. Itai Engel: One example for how bizarre this place is: I was a Foreign Affairs editor in 1989. It was at a time of this tragic event in Beijing, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and I remember that I had few important new details and I wanted to run into the studio and bring them on. And then you know, there was a commander who was in charge of the way I look at a soldier, cut me, and he spotted that I was not wearing the socks, the military socks but you know, are red, so he did not let me go into the studio, and I say, ‘Hey listen, this is the most important thing happening in the world'. "No, no, you're a soldier to begin with, you're not a journalist to begin with so you will change your socks before you undergo a trial because of not wearing suitable uniform". And I actually recall yelling about him because I was a journalist at the time, you know, in my mind completely. I forgot about the uniform, I didn't give a damn about the uniform, and then he got me this commander who was in charge of everything. So I actually had to force myself in, and once I was in the studio it was a live program, he could not really talk to me and yell at me, so he stayed quiet. I made my little speech about it, I went out of the studio and immediately I got an invitation for a military trial because I did not have the proper uniform, my military socks were not military, they were not brown but red. This is one example for how crazy this place is. Jonathan Gadir: Uri Breitman, now a law student and journalist at an online newspaper, has recently completed his compulsory service during which time he was Army Radio's entertainment reporter. Uri Breitman: When all the foreign bands were here, we interviewed them, like BB King and U2 when they've been here. So I interviewed them like anyone else with uniform, which is kind of unique, because you know when people are coming, singers and musicians and artists, they come to Israel, they don't expect someone to interview them with uniform, which is pretty strange. But when I went to the Knesset, when I went to the Israeli Parliament, I did not wear uniform because there is a kind of transparent law in the station that says "When you're going to the Parliament, you don't go in uniform" because it looks very bad on TV, and a soldier can interview a parliament member. Click here for skip to next section Itai Engel: I would say there is a great contradiction between what the Army would like the Army radio station to be, and a lot of the people who are in it would like it to be. And usually there are great quarrels between the people who are working in the Army radio station and the Army itself. It came to a point where the former Chief of Staff, Ehud Barak, wanted to close the Army radio station because he said it's a waste of money. Ehud Barak did not really like the journalists in the Army radio station. Jonathan Gadir: And are there ever conflicts between security needs, say the government's demands that you not reveal the Army's demands, that you not reveal something about an operation in the territories, and your role as a journalist and your responsibility as a journalist to inform the public? Itai Engel: Yes there is conflict all the time. So if I'm going to the occupied territories and I see some, let's say, immoral act of one Israeli soldier, I would like to report it, I wouldn't like to hide it. I would like to be the first one to report about it, and I would like me to make the great headlines and not other radio station, TV or press. So if the Army will know what I'm about to do, I mean I would not be able to do it, I would not be able to report it. I can sneak something in here and there but there are great restrictions about what I can tell and what I cannot tell. Jonathan Gadir: How does a reporter for IDF radio cover an operation in the territories just practically, on a daily basis, what do you actually have to do? Itai Engel: This is a great potential to be the most problematic aspects of making news within the Army radio station. I think now it's a time which the Army radio station wouldn't like any of his reporters to go to the occupied territories because it is too dangerous. The Army wouldn't let you to be too close with Palestinians because OK you are a journalist, but hey, there is a limit. This is our enemy and you're a soldier within the Israeli Army and we are fighting these Palestinians and you are talking to them and you are making good contacts. OK, this is the way to work as a journalist, but still they are the enemy, you cannot be too close with them and too have too close ties with them. You as a journalist would like to have the best ties, but your commander say, Hey, this is completely freak-out. Until two years ago the best correspondent in the occupied territories was one from Galei Tsahal, the IDF radio station. He was not a soldier, he'd finished his Army duty, he was a scholar, he was a great correspondent within the Palestinian, he spoke fluent Arabic, dug in very deep into the Palestinian territories, talked to a lot of wanteds, people who are considered to be criminals by the Israeli Army and by the Israeli government. He had a full interview with them and he brought stuff which was unimaginable. And he was doing it at the Army radio station. So once again, the commander of the Army and the Defence Ministry say "Why should we need something like that?" Jonathan Gadir: Itai Engel, former Foreign Editor for Israel Army Radio. On its music network, Army Radio nurtures new local bands, while on its talks network, a 19-year-old might be given responsibilities that elsewhere would require decades of experience. Uri Breitman, former reporter for Israel Army Radio. Uri Breitman: Do you know, one of my friends once asked the Chief (of) Staff, he asked him a very difficult question about his status in the Army and he gave him a pretty tough face and said "Now I understand why they want to close you down". On numerous occasions, when young journalists met all the Generals, and there was a very difficult dialogue between the two, because you're a very young guy you just entered the Army, you're 18 years old, you're scared, and you're interviewing a big General who's 40 years old who has this very mature face, and has all those very elaborate answers, and you really feel inferior to them. Because Israel is being run by the Army, so it's only natural that the most popular station in Israel would be run by the Army too. And I think as long as the Army is such a dominant feature in Israeli life, the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) Radio will sustain its status as the most influential radio station in Israel. MUSIC Mick O'Regan: Music from a band called Monica Sex, believe it or not, ending that report on Israel Army Radio which was prepared by the ABC's Jonathan Gadir. Israeli Army Radio page Uri Breitman's Manifesto