Petition Seeks to Halt Channel 14’s Election-Night Patriots Broadcast

The Academy for a Democratic Israel filed an urgent application with the Central Elections Committee on Tuesday morning seeking to stop Channel 14’s election-night edition of The Patriots. The application followed a promotional campaign promising exit-poll figures an hour before other broadcasters. The program, presented by Yinon Magal, was scheduled for 21:00 at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, Binyanei HaUma. According to the reports, the petitioners sought to prevent election figures from being aired before voting ended, including numbers presented as satire or humor. Their request therefore concerned the content of the planned program as well as the promotion of early results. Channel 14 opposed the application and defended the program’s satirical content and freedom of expression. It said it rejected “the attempt to silence The Patriots before its broadcast.” The broadcaster’s response disputed the attempt to restrict the show; it did not announce that the special edition had been cancelled. Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg required the channel to submit its response by noon. No final injunction had been reported when the morning accounts appeared. The channel’s published plan remained a 21:00 Patriots edition followed by its main election-results broadcast and official exit poll at 22:00. The requested prohibition and the response deadline were separate from a final decision on whether the program could air.