PRESS AND GOVERNMENT IN

By Ze'ev Chafets *

The Israeli press is one of the most adversarial and aggressive in the world. With a population of approximately four million, Israel has eight major daily newspapers 1 and dozens of weekly, bi- weekly and monthly journals and periodicals. In recent years, most of them have been in editorial opposition to the government, the one sure sign of the freedom of the press.1a The overall quality and variety of Israel's press has led American columnist and critic Murray Kempton to refer to it as "the most reliable set of newspapers in the world." 2 In addition to newspapers and periodicals Israel has one television station, which broadcasts in both Hebrew and Arabic, four civilian radio stations, and one army radio station. Television and civilian radio operate in the framework of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, a authority patterned roughly on the model of the BBC, while the army radio is controlled by the Ministry of Defense. Israelis, it has often been noted, are obsessed with news and current events, an outgrowth of the country's special security situation. In recent years, roughly since the 1973 , Israel has also become a major center of international press attention. A recent study shows that in the years 1972-79, only the Soviet Union received more news coverage on American network television than did Israel; and all indications are that this trend has continued, both in the written press and television of the West.3 There are currently almost two hundred

* Director, Israel Government Press Office, 1977-1982; author of Double Vision (1985). 1 Ha'aretz (independent), AlHamishmar (Mapam), Davar (Histadrut), Jerusalem Post (partial Histadrut), HaTzofe (National Religious Party), Ma'ariv (indepen- dent), Yediot Ahronot (independent) and Hadashot (independent). la This situation was only partially altered by the emergence of a government of national unity in September 1984. 2 Newsday, 22 September 1982. 3 Larson, "International Affairs Coverage of U.S. Evening Network News, 1972-79", Television Coverage of International Affairs 15-39 (ed. William C. Adams) (1982).

134 PRESS AND GOVERNMENT IN ISRAEL 135 and fifty accredited foreign correspondents in Jerusalem and , one of the largest per capita resident foreign press corps in the world. In addition, between one thousand and twenty-five hundred visiting correspondents receive short term accreditation annually.4 Few of the post-colonial nations of Asia and Africa can boast such an independent, aggressive press, and Israel's achievement in this regard becomes especially impressive in light of the fact that the country has been in what amounts to a continuous state of hostility with its neighbors (now excluding Egypt) since its establishment in 1948. As a result, Israel has had, and continues to have, military censorship of its press, a fact that often puzzles and confuses outside observers who find it anomalous that press freedom can, and obviously does, co-exist with official censorship. To understand this apparent contradiction it is necessary to explore three central aspects of the issue: the legal basis of censorship, its de facto operation, and the special conditions that have made it, in the opinion of both the military and journalistic establishments, a necessary and even positive element in the country's overall information equation. Military censorship is an almost inevitable consequence of modem warfare. During World War I, for example, Great Britain applied it so severely that, according to British press critic Phillip Knightley "its legacy lingers today." 6 American censorship in that war included not only military but political information; and on one memorable occasion an item about a gift of champagne to American soldiers was blue-pencilled as a possible political embarrassment to the Wilson Administration., During World War II, the Allies re-instituted press censorship. In Great Britain all outgoing communications were monitored, and editors were prohibited from, "obtaining, recording, communicating to any other person or publishing information which might be useful to the enemy".7 Both Great Britain and the United States imposed political as well as military censorship. For example, the American correspond- ent A.J. Liebling, found his dispatches about Allied cooperation with

4 According to the figures of Israel's government press office. 5 Knightley, The First Casualty 80 (1975). 6 Ibid., at 130. 7 Ibid., at 218.