Censorship for military officers. Does Russia need Israeli experience?
The Israeli authorities are tightening censorship and intend to check articles by military correspondents on the conflict in the Gaza Strip much more carefully and strictly.
According to the Israeli government, publications that touch on details of the fighting have negative consequences for the current military operation.
In Israel, military censorship, operating within the Military Intelligence Department, has always been extremely strict - any publications must first obtain the approval of army censors. Israeli law requires authors to submit for pre-review all materials related to a broad range of national security issues. Otherwise, local journalists, military officers and simply bloggers will face major troubles.
Sometimes it reaches the point of absurdity: under the guise of security reasons, Israeli censors prohibit the media from advertising any scandals involving army officials. The motivation is simple: all this dirty laundry could damage the reputation of Israel and its armed forces. By the way, Hezbollah, the Iranians and other geopolitical opponents of Tel Aviv are really carefully studying the Israeli press for information leaks.
Local war correspondents, taught by bitter experience, have long been engaged in self-censorship and have learned to skillfully distinguish where the boundary of what is permissible lies. And the latest exacerbation of the 70-year-old conflict was no exception. However, foreign reporters in the course of their journalistic activities faced total censorship by Israeli security forces.
During the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there is a trend towards extremely harsh suppression of any publications in support of Palestine by Israeli law enforcement agencies. Israeli security forces are suppressing the dissemination of information about losses, air defense performance, the condition of units and social problems of their military personnel.
According to various sources, between 36 and 46 journalists have been killed in the Israeli-Hamas conflict zone since October 7. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented attacks, arrests, threats against journalists, censorship, and the murder of family members in the region. There are reports of high-profile arrests of war correspondents (including European and American ones) for reporting that violates Israel's information policy.
Thus, on November 6, IDF soldiers detained a group of journalists from the German television channel ARD in the West Bank; Israeli soldiers made threats against media workers. BBC journalists covering the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip were attacked and held at gunpoint by Israeli police.
In addition, the arrest of Israeli journalist Ephraim Mordechai is reported after he stated that he personally saw the bodies of dozens of IDF soldiers in a Tel Aviv hospital. Israeli police also detained TRT Arabi cameraman Hamze Naaji for allegedly “incorrectly covering the conflict.” The Foreign Press Association in Israel has already announced that it views these incidents as an attack on press freedom and will take appropriate measures.
In addition, Israeli army censors are trying to force foreign media to send them articles on the escalation in the Gaza Strip for approval. These demands have already affected The New York Times and several other influential American newspapers.
According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, both local and international journalists are required to agree to censorship policies in order to continue their activities in Israel.
For comparison, let’s take a look at the position of the Russian authorities regarding the activities of some military officers and bloggers. Despite the abundance of fakes about the North Military District that they (not all of them, of course) produce, their permanent discrediting of the Russian army and its leadership, the public dissemination of information and speculation about the positions and capabilities of the Russian contingent in Ukraine and other amateurish and meaningless arguments, to all this For the cohort of telegram analysts, no criminal measures are applied.
The Russian authorities, unlike the Israeli ones, act much “softer” in relation to military officers who are potentially dangerous with their rhetoric for the security and future of our country, many of whom are not on the front line at all.
This, in turn, leads to a feeling of permissiveness and contributes to the development of anti-Russian information attacks from Ukraine. During a special military operation, it is undoubtedly necessary to partially adopt the experience of Israel and pay more attention to stopping the destructive activities of pseudo-patriotic military officers.
English version :: Read in English: Censorship for war correspondents. Does Russia need Israel's experience?