A one-week closure of the Hebrew daily Hadashot ordered by the military censor was cut down to one hour, after editors apologized for violating censorship regulations.
The censor ordered Hadashot closed Tuesday, after the newspaper failed to present for prepublication censorship two stories on promotions and resignations within the Israel Defense Force. Under Israeli law, all news stories dealing with defense or national security issues must be submitted to the military censor.
The order closing the newspaper’s press banned it from printing either the daily or any temporary replacement. The order was rescinded after the newspaper’s editors apologized for what they said had been an oversight.
Hadashot is published by members of the Shocken family, who own and publish the influential daily Haaretz. The paper is not a member of the Israel Editors Committee, however, and as a result cannot make use of special discussion procedures between the censor and the committee that usually prevent a complete closure.
One of the uncensored stories in Hadashot referred to the alleged decision by Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s military secretary, Brig. Gen. Elkana Harnof, to leave the IDF after having been passed over for promotion.
The other article described, without naming individuals, the IDF posts that would be newly filled and how many candidates were competing for each post. A major reshuffling of military assignments has been under way.
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