Same channel found to part-own company that does its polls

Uproar after Channel 14 anchor talks about Iran strategy without censor approval

Lawmakers call for Knesset defense committee to hold urgent meeting on Shimon Riklin, anchor at pro-Netanyahu channel, who spoke on air about dealing with highly enriched uranium

Lawmakers have called for a Knesset defense oversight committee to hold an urgent meeting after Shimon Riklin, an anchor on the pro-government Channel 14 news outlet, discussed during a Monday broadcast aspects of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium that they said had not been approved by the military censor for publication.

MKs Ram Ben Barak and Elazar Stern of the opposition Yesh Atid party sent a letter on Monday to the chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Boaz Bismuth, asking for a meeting of the forum, or of its intelligence sub-committee.

They said that Riklin had published “apparently secret information” and claimed that the details seemed to have come from officials with knowledge of the matter.

They warned that the information could cause harm to Israel and the US, as well as the ties between the two countries.

Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff, posted that Riklin’s remarks were “reckless trafficking in national security” and that the information “must have come from senior government [sources].”

“This is a report that must be fully investigated,” wrote Eisenkot on X of the broadcast. “Anyone who trades in this kind of information has given up responsibility and sound judgment and is unfit to lead.”

Riklin responded to Eisenkot, calling his remarks “nonsense” and insisting “that nothing was revealed by the channel.”

In a post to his own feed, Riklin wrote, “I did not reveal this evening any secret details that are prohibited from publication,” adding that he had not said anything about Israel’s preparations for possible military operations against Iran.

He said the segment in question was a “hypothetical discussion” about what Israel should attack in Iran and that he had only declared his support for a ground operation, without specifying where.

“No one shared any secrets with me,” he said.

However, during the broadcast, Riklin spoke about a specific Iranian facility and the uranium believed to be stored there. He also remarked, “What I’m hearing is” and that “it doesn’t matter who hinted this to me,” in apparent reference to the sources of his information.

Military historian Professor Danny Orbach, who was also participating in the discussion, then told Riklin that the information had not been widely reported, seeming to urge him to stop, but Riklin laughed it off by pretending to whisper instead.

Iran’s stockpile of some 440 kilograms of enriched uranium is a key element in the war Israel and the US launched against Iran on February 28 in a bid to destabilize the regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile capacities.

Israeli officials have said that this stockpile is sufficient for 11 nuclear bombs. The cache is believed to be buried underground at one of Iran’s nuclear facilities that was bombed by the US in June 2025.

Iran, which is avowed to destroy Israel, enriched uranium to a level that is a short technical step from weapons-grade and that the UN atomic agency says has no civilian use. Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful.

A ceasefire in the war has been in place since April 8, while mediated negotiations between the US and Iran are held to end the conflict. A key obstacle remains the US demand that Iran give up the uranium, while the Iranians are insisting on their right to maintain a nuclear program.

Channel 14 accused of ethics breach in its polling

The latest controversy came as Haaretz revealed that Channel 14 had set up a polling company and published surveys about the coming elections without notifying that it owns the pollster, in what a media watchdog said could be a breach of ethics. The polls predicted a win for the current coalition.

According to the newspaper, the Next Data company was registered in October by Netanel Siman-Tov, a representative for Yitzchak Mirilashvili, who has a controlling stake in Channel 14. Siman-Tov is listed as the director of Next Data, and Ofrim Media has shares in it. Ofrim Media is majority-owned by Ofrim Holdings, which is also controlled by Mirilashvili.

Data from the polls was analyzed by Shlomo Filber, a former state witness in one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption cases.

In a statement to Haaretz, Channel 14 said its polls in recent months “were conducted by other polling companies and analyzed by Shlomo Filber. The analysis of the results is carried out using accepted statistical methods, according to stratified analysis.”

Filber responded to the report with a post to X that Channel 14 set up the polling company as “another step toward breaking a one-sided monopoly and increasing competition in the media market.”

The Israeli Public Council for Press and Ethics said Tuesday that it is likely the network broke press ethics rules.

“Concealing a direct proprietary and business relationship between the advertising media outlet and the institute that produces the data may constitute a breach of public trust and is ostensibly contrary to the Council’s code of ethics, which requires full disclosure in any publication that concerns the interests of the media outlet or its owners,” the council said.

Channel 14 and Riklin have faced criticism in the past. Last month, a petition was filed with the High Court of Justice asking the court to order the police to investigate 18 prominent media personalities who appear on the outlet for various criminal offenses, including sedition and incitement to violence.

The petition noted that legislation passed in 2018 enables Channel 14 to skirt crucial regulations applied to commercial news channels that are designed to ensure fair and balanced coverage.

As a result of that legislation, Channel 14 is exempt from regulatory provisions requiring that a channel have more than a single owner, that its news division be a separate corporation from the channel itself, and that it adopt the ethics regulations of the Israeli Public Council for Press and Ethics.