The Israel Broadcasting Authority said yesterday that an investigation failed to produce any evidence to support charges that television crews were paying slum youths in Jerusalem to stage violent demonstrations for the benefit of their cameras. The charges were made last week by Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem and Menachem Porush, an Agudat Israel MK in the Knesset. The charges coincided with demonstrations by Jerusalem’s self-styled Black Panthers. Twelve Panther leaders arrested last Wednesday for illegal demonstrations were released by police Saturday. It was not known whether formal charges were filed against them. The arrests were widely criticized. The charges leveled against the tv camera teams were protested by the Jerusalem Journalists Association. It accused officials of attempting to divert attention from the youth problem “by leveling unproven charges against television journalists.”
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