Israel Censored A News Story Every 4 Hours Last Year
Image by Getty Images
Israel is censoring a growing number of news stories, and forced editorial changes in one story every four hours last year, according to a freedom of information request filed by +972 Magazine and the Movement for Freedom of Information.
Israel’s Military Censor refused to publish 271 articles in 2017 — more than five a week — and partially or fully redacted a total of 2,358 news items submitted to it for prior review,.
In recent years, the censor has tried to expand its scope, looking to review information from independent blogs and web-based publications as well as traditional print media.
Two years ago, +972 Magazine reported that the censor fully or partially redacted one out of every five articles submitted for review. According to data for 2017, the censor fully or partially redacted 21 percent of the articles submitted to it that year — more than one out of every five articles. Between 2010 and 2017, it banned the publication of 2,298 articles.
Once an article has been censored, the journalist and publication are forbidden from revealing what information was removed or redacted.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
