The Israel Media Watch media watchdog organization has announced the two winners of its annual media criticism prize: The family of a Druze soldier who sued a TV commentator for libel, and the editor of the new Israel Today (Yisrael HaYom)daily.
The first winner, announced last week, is the family of Capt. R., whose full name is not allowed for publication by a gag order. Former Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval, president of Israel Media Watch (IMW), said, “The family’s struggle is a model of a stubborn and courageous battle by ordinary people on behalf of integrity and honesty in Israeli media.”
The prize will be awarded in an official ceremony on February 7.
The family did not stop at the “not guilty” verdict handed down in court for R.’, who had been charged with either killing or confirming death after the killing of a 13-year-old Arab girl. The family went on and also sued prominent Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan, accusing her and her "Uvdah" (Fact) TV program for defamation. The plaintiffs claimed that at many points in Dayan’s documentary, clips of soldiers’ voices during the incident were edited and combined with videos that showed events that were completely unrelated to the incident. In addition, it was claimed, all the omitted clips show that the incident took place amidst an Arab attack directly endangering Captain R. and his soldiers.
In December 2009, District Court Judge Noam Solberg found in favor of the plaintiffs, ruling that Dayan and the Tel-Ad TV company must pay the family 300,000 shekels and another 80,000 shekels in court costs. Dayan, who has a doctorate in law, is a cousin of Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan.
“The family of Capt. R. was not deterred by the sharp onslaught waged against them by Ilana Dayan’s colleagues in the press and the media establishment,” IMW says. “Their court suit exposed foolish journalistic behavior that gives up on objectivity, fairness and professionalism, in order to make a story. Moreover, the verdict in the case revealed that the bodies that are entrusted with supervising Second Channel media work have failed to do so. The family of Capt. R. has thus made a great contribution towards improving media supervision and towards getting the message out that ‘getting a story does not justify all means.’”
On Sunday, the second winner of the IMW Media Criticism Prize was announced: Amos Regev, editor of the free daily newspaper, Israel’s second largest newspaper, Yisrael HaYom (Israel Today). The paper has “caused a revolution in the map of Israeli print media, providing a platform for different opinions,” Israel Media Watch says.
Regev’s newspaper “unites a wide and balanced range of the best journalists and commentators,” IMW states, “and provides the broad public with a true alternative to the near-monopoly that has controlled the press up to now.”
Yisrael HaYom’s rapid growth has prompted opponents to urge legislation to block its growth. The newspaper has already overtaken Maariv as the country’s second-most widely read newspaper, and it is now threatening Yediot Acharonot as well. The last survey on newspaper readership, taken by the TGI Institute for the first half of 2009, shows Yediot with 34.2% exposure, followed by Yisrael HaYom with 26.9%. Trailing behind are Maariv (14.4%) and Haaretz (7.5%). Distributed free on buses, busy intersections, places of work, residences, and elsewhere, 250,000 copies of Yisrael HaYom are published five days a week, and the paper recently began a weekend edition as well.
Yediot and Maariv are behind a drive to “safeguard Israel’s democracy by preventing a foreign national from controlling its print media, and to prevent the print media market from financial collapse,” and several MKs are convinced that legislation to this effect is necessary. Publisher Sheldon Adelson of the United States is said to be a friend of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and his newspaper is considered by critics to be pro-Netanyahu. Maariv, Yediot and Haaretz generally have an anti-Netanyahu tilt.