How Benjamin Netanyahu Is Crushing Israel’s Free Press

[Little Tich]

18. Here's an article about what happens to an Israeli journalist who is doing his job:

Israeli judge to reporter - state security matters more than press freedom
Source: The Guardian, 4 September 2012

An Israeli court has ruled that state security is more important than freedom of the press and the public's right to know.

A judge decided that national security trumped the rights of journalists because, without the former, there would be no state and therefore no newspapers.

That was the conclusion to a case involving Uri Blau, a reporter with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, who was sentenced to four months' community service under a plea bargain for possessing classified military documents.

In a written judgement delivered at Tel Aviv magistrates court, judge Ido Druyan said: "I accept the plea bargain reached by the parties, and sentence the accused to a single term of four months' jail which may be served by means of community service... starting from 11 September 2012."

Blau, who will do his community service at a medical centre, was convicted in July of possessing secret army papers that he received from a former soldier who was subsequently jailed on charges of spying.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/sep/04/press-freedom-israel