Freedom of the press in the Israeli media
“Israeli journalists are not embedded with the security establishment; and they haven’t been asked to make their audience feel good about Israel’s military policy. The restrictions they observe are observed voluntarily, almost unconsciously – which makes their practice all the more dangerous. ” Writing in the London Review of Books, Yonatan Mendel, a journalist with the Israeli news agency Walla, explains the restrictions on Israeli journalists. He says the press in Israel is free when it comes to reporting on corruption and social dishonesty but “when it comes to ‘security’ there is no such freedom. It’s ‘us’ and ‘them’, the IDF and the ‘enemy’; military discourse, which is the only discourse allowed, trumps any other possible narrative.” I interviewed Yoni in April 2008 for Radio Salaam Shalom. Listen to the interview[podcast]http://www.salaamshalom.org.uk/wp-content/media/audio/YoniMendel.mp3[/podcast]
