Israel Media Watch, an organization that calls for pluralism and transparency within the Israeli media, filed a freedom of information request to reveal whether Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz publishers had undue influence on MKs during the 2014 deliberations on the anti-Israel Hayom legislation. The group is asking that the publishers' meetings and call logs with key politicians during that period be exposed to determine whether the two promised or gave good press in exchange for supporting the bill.
Tuesday move comes weeks after the Supreme Court said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must disclose logs of his telephone conversations with U.S. businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson and with Amos Regev, the former editor-in-chief of the Adelson-owned Israel Hayom newspaper. The ruling came after a lengthy legal battle that began with a freedom of information request by Channel 10 investigative journalist Raviv Drucker, who argued there may be ethical issues in having Netanyahu be in regular contact with the senior leadership and owners of a major Israeli newspaper.
Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes and Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken may have spoke with legislators and ministers during the deliberations about the anti-Israel Hayom bill, which passed its preliminary reading in 2014 but was later shelved. The bill was drafted in a way that would severely cripple Israel Hayom and help rivals Yedioth Ahronoth and Haaretz.
In its request, Israel Media Watch said it would like to receive an account of the times and dates of the calls made between the publishers and the faction leaders who supported the bill, including Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Hatnuah Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, then-Labor leader Isaac Herzog and others.
The bill's goal was to silence people and undermine free speech," IMW CEO Elad Malka told Israel Hayom. "It was abundantly clear that those who would benefit most from such a bill were the big newspapers, and now we seek to find out whether those papers had favorable coverage toward those politicians who helped push the bill that served their interests. It is normal to have elected officials and media figures engage in constant dialogue between them, but this right has been denied from the prime minister. That is why we are fighting for the principle of equality and demand that all those who promoted the bill to close Israel Hayom have their relations exposed."
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו