The affair of “Prisoner X,” otherwise known as Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier, raises anew the issue of censorship, freedom of speech and media coverage in Israel. Well, I am not the bearer of glad tidings. Israel is not a dark place where authorities try to keep vital information from the public through military censorship. Having been posted by my newspaper in New York for four years, I can determine unequivocally that average Israeli newspaper consumers have no less vital information about the goings-on of their government and its military than their counterpart consumers in most Western countries — sometimes much more. Israel is a free country, with a penetrating and free media which taunts authorities no less than in most Western countries and in most cases — even much more so.
By the way, the media in Israel is in the throes of a fight for its life because authorities are trying to hurt it, to confine its movements, to control and silence it, but that is a different issue, totally unrelated to censorship. I shall touch upon it at the end of this article.
Yes, there’s military censorship in Israel, which did not play a central role in the Prisoner X affair. In this case, a court issued a gag order which was upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court, an independent, powerful entity, accepted by the entire world. The censor played only a minor part in this affair and the chief military censor, Brig. Gen. Sima Vaknin-Gil, thought that the sweeping gag order caused more harm than good. She also defended the Israeli lawmakers who stood up in the Knesset and violated the gag order (without knowing of its existence), and announced that in her view, they were doing their job and their duty. The authority of Israel’s censorship is very focused and is used sparingly in a measured and logical fashion.
As a journalist for nearly 30 years in the media and defense arenas in Israel, I look back, and not in anger. I’ve had numerous run-ins with the censors but in retrospect I cannot point at cases where my reports or stories were draconically suppressed. In most cases, it is possible to reach an agreed-upon version with the censors, it is possible to discuss things, it is possible to appeal their decisions. There are virtually no journalists in Israel who believe the censors have systematically wronged them or abused their power.
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