Slippery Slope

The Haredi site “Tsofar” published an article by Shmuel Kooper calling for the extermination of Yaron London. The article responds to an opinion piece published by London under the title “Shrink the Haredi Society”. Later the word “exterminate” in Kooper’s article was replaced by “shrink”.

Manager of Kol Israel, Micky Mirro, ordered to cancel the personal opinion columns that were aired during the “Friday Noon” radio show.

(Hebrew)

The IDF’s Personnel Directorate decided that from now on all articles in the military weekly “BaMahane” will require prior approval by Chief Education Officer, Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister.  The decision follows the publication of the weekly’s Purim edition which featured soldiers dressed in drag. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew - Walla)

The management of the Israel Broadcast Authority issued a private work permit to the head of its news division, Moshe Nestlebaum, despite legal advise it received to the contrary on the issue.  The legal opinion states that there is a concern for a conflict of interest between his employment as the head of the news division and his private work hosting cultural round tables in which the participants are senior members of the media, politics and culture.

(Hebrew - Haaretz)

Senior journalists were fired a short time after joining the new Journalists’ Association.

(Hebrew)

A senior “Israel HaYom” columnist, Dror Ider, is on the payroll of the Prime Minister’s office, receiving 50,000 Shekels a year for “speech and lecture writing”.

The deputy editor of “Makor Rishon”, Uri Elitzur, is on contract with the Prime Minister’s office as a speech writer, in contrast with the ethics rules of the Press Council.

(Hebrew)

Reshet Bet talk show host Ayala Hasson exposed a case which occurred in a senior government bureau, where a female employee was transferred from her position because a senior man in the bureau could not contain his desire for her.  The female employee’s dismissal was intended to prevent the man’s entanglement in a sexual harassment case.  Hasson used the case as a positive example of a possible solution to such a situation in the workplace.  Political commentator Hanan Kristal explained that the dismissal of the female employee was necessary, and Yossi Levy, former media adviser to the Prime Minister, also approved of the dismissal.

Journalist Yoav Yitzhak has complained to the Registrar of Associations about the appointment of Yossi Bar-Mocha as CEO of Tel Aviv’s Journalists Association, saying his appointment has been extended a further five years, in violation of the association’s regulations.

(Hebrew)

Israel dropped six spots in Journalists Without Borders’ annual press freedom report, reaching 92nd place out of 179 countries.  According to the organization, the drop has two main reasons: the legal proceedings against Uri Blau and Anat Kam and the recent amendment to the libel law.