Supreme Court orders PM: divulge dates of talks with Israel Hayom heads
PM Netanyahu ordered by Supreme Court to divulge dates of his conversations with Israel Hayom daily paper, Sheldon Adelson, and the paper's former editor-in-chief, Amos Regev.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the prime minister will give the dates of his talks with the owner of Israel Hayom Sheldon Adelson and the newspaper's former editor-in-chief Amos Regev. The court's petition was filed by Channel 10 News journalist Raviv Drucker.
The Supreme Court ruled: "These are talks between the prime minister and the two most important position holders in Israel Hayom newspaper—the controlling shareholder of the newspaper and its (then—ed) editor-in-chief.
"Although the claim is that the requested information relates to private conversations and not to newspaper conversations, the existence of a personal connection between the prime minister and the controlling shareholder and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and the intensity of such a connection, is of great public interest.
"It should be added that this is not a mere matter of gossip over the connection between a member of the government and the owner or editor of a newspaper. The connection between the prime minister and Israel Hayom, a popular and influential daily newspaper, has been on the public agenda and has preoccupied the public and the political establishment almost since the newspaper was founded in 2007.
"The intensive public discourse on the question of the essence of the connection between the prime minister and the newspaper, as well as the goals behind the founding of the newspaper, led, inter alia, to the State Comptroller's review of the petition to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee ahead of the elections to the 20th Knesset, with some even believing that this led to the elections being expedited."
The Supreme Court also explained that weight must be given to the fact that, at the time, Netnayahu "also held ministerial powers in other ministries, including the Ministry of Communications."
Furthermore, the court stressed that "thosew seeking information are not merely a 'curious citizen,' but rather a senior journalist and a central media outlet who conducted an investigation into the relationship between the prime minister and the newspaper Israel Hayom and its owner, in which the newspaper was presented as 'a mouthpiece for promoting the prime minister's positions and interests,' and sought to deepen and corroborate the findings of their investigation."
