Israel and Press Censorship: The Absurdity of Blocking What Everyone Else Knows

IMPORTANT UPDATE HERE.

Here's an editorial in Ha'aretz, deploring government censorship of a "security case" reported on in the foreign press but barred by state censors from being mentioned in the Israeli press. And here's their news report, which is equally uninformative. But retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner, who heads the Israel Press Council now, has been strongly opposed to the ruling.

Okay, now that your curiosity is engaged, here's the NYT with the background story. Here's Britain's The Independent helping break the story. And here's The Guardian.

Now the point is, an Israeli journalist has reportedly been held in house arrest since December, suspected of copying classified documents. While I don't like journalists being arrested on general free press principles, if she violated the law, prosecute her.

But she's been under house arrest since last year, and it's now April. And a Ha'aretz journalist accused in the case, Uri Blau, is staying in London until it's resolved; this expose in 2008 allegedly was based on the documents the accused leaked.. But what's particularly bizarre is that Israelis can surf the web, too. So why can't this be published in Israel?

I've had a couple of personal experiences with Israeli military censors in the days (mostly the 1980s) when I was writing a lot about Israeli defense issues. Anything filed from Israel had to be cleared by the censors, but since I was usually there a week at a time at most, it was easiest to write the story from the US on my return. Facts that literally everyone knew were still barred by the censors.

But in the age of the Internet, what the hell is the point of this gag order? Ha'aretz can only refer obliquely to an issue which involves one of its own. Do they think the Arabs might find out? Gosh, they probably can Google it, just as I did. Do they think their own people can't find out? I rather doubt that.

I know, and recognize, that most Arab countries have equally or more ridiculous censorship laws. But Israel has always portrayed itself as a democracy and the freest country in the region. A gag order on a story that anyone can quickly learn with a Google search suggests a strange pattern: your enemies already know, and so do your allies, so your "classified" or "security sensitive" arguments suggest this is just a case of not wanting your own people to know. But they already do. So why preserve the censorship? CYA? And nothing else?

It's not the fifties anymore, folks. Information wants to be free. Israel cannot gag this story with stupid regulations because the story is out there. The old guard still don't get the new communications media.