Knesset members who led to the loosening of the gag order on the Prisoner X case got some back-up today from what could seem an unlikely source: the Chief Israel Military Censor Brig.-Gen. Sima Vaknin-Gil.
Speaking at a conference at Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Law, School of Communications and Center for Law, Vaknin-Gil said “as long as I am in my post, the censor will not work to shut up Knesset members.”Vaknin-Gil joined a panel of journalists and academics discussing issues of military censorship and the Israeli press, with a focus on the recent case of Prisoner X, which sparked a public discussion about the role of the military censor in the internet age.
Vaknin-Gil admitted that “censorship and democracy don’t go hand in hand,” but added that “in any instance where someone is sent secretly by the state for our defense, I will not weigh the issues of freedom of information.”
