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Vital Information Does Not Reach the Chareidi Sector from the Israel Government
by Yisrael Rosner
The forum of the Union of Chareidi Cities petitioned this week the High Court asking for a order to the government to appear and present reasons for the lack of funding for equal advertisement rights according to the relative portion of each population sector forming Israeli society, nor any less important, its right to choose effective and relevant means for each and every sector thereof.
The appeal is being presented in the midst of the storm, so to speak, when Corona is exacting a heavy toll within the chareidi sector, and the incidence of the disease is growing. The battle against the virus is basically one regarding its character and an understanding within the public of the epidemic itself and its dangers, as well as methods for dealing with it. While the general media is flooded with advertisements and clarifications, within the chareidi section, the output is almost soundless.
The situation today is such that conveying data to the chareidi sector is merely "to get by with as little as possible," as was stated in the appeal. The terrible shortcoming in transmitting information about Corona in the required scope and optimal timing, reflects a serious, basic problem spanning many years. The various campaigns over the years abusively ignore the chareidi sector, and the government is lax in its duty in every campaign which finds expression much below par compared to the general publicity, and worse of all, what is done is in a most ineffective manner.
According to a report of the Knesset Research and Information Center and a special report made by the research branch of Yifat Media which is presented as part of the appeal, one can clearly see that there is a serious lack of equality in positive exposure to the chareidi public. On the average, across the past three years, the advertisement budget allotted to the chareidi sector stands at a mere 3% while the rest of the public enjoys a budget four times as large, or about 13%!
The facts of the study prove that the publicity within the chareidi sector was negligible with relation to the rest of the population. The time allotment for the advertisement during the campaign was significantly shorter than that of the rest of the population, and it was published far too late.
In order to verify and concretize this point, the petitioners asked the Yifat group to organize a study of facts and sum up their findings about the Government Publicity Office in a sweeping report of the government's areas, comparing the ratio of the chareidi sector to that of the overall population. The findings of the Yifat report are most troublesome, indicating not only sectorial budgetary discrimination but qualitative discrimination. This deficiency can be proven throughout the various campaigns which are recognized and known during the Corona period.
A summer campaign was an attempt to return to normality and cautious conduct during the Corona crisis under the slogan: "Our return to routine is in your hands," an important one which explained to the public how to carefully conduct oneself in daily situations in order to maintain a necessary social distance and prevent of contagion. Only 1% of the budget of the campaign was allotted to the chareidi public. This campaign hammered in the messages to the general public for 55 days, while it was exposed to the chareidim for only nine days! And this, very reservedly on chareidi radio which is not a good source of publicity compared to the newspapers which everyone reads.
The significance of these facts is that such a vital and dramatic campaign for the health of the population at large was not properly publicized to the chareidi sector.
It was expected that following the crisis at the beginning of Corona, greater promotion would be given beyond the general public to convey messages regarding the importance of social distance and the dangers of Corona to this public.
"However, it appears that the Government Office of Publicity prefers to glory in glittering campaigns while whole sectors within the country which are in great need of internalizing the information [and does not receive it], simply does not interest them," charged the report.
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