The former publisher of the Jerusalem Post will testify in Congress on censorship.
Tom Rose, who was the Jerusalem Post publisher from 1998 to 2004, is one of several speakers addressing the Tuesday session of the Middle East subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Rose will appear alongside representatives of free-speech groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House and the Anti-Defamation League.
Subcommittee staffers told JTA that the decision to invite Rose was made by its ranking member, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Pence’s office would not comment on the invitation. Like Pence, Rose is from Indiana and has ties to the Republican Party.
In 1998, David Radler and Conrad Black named Rose to run the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli flagship of Hollinger International, the media group they ran. In 2003, U.S. and Canadian authorities launched investigations into claims that Radler and Black had diverted to their personal holdings funds that should have gone to Hollinger. In 2004, as their careers unraveled, Hollinger pushed out Radler and Black as well as their loyalists, including Rose. Eventually, the media group sold the Jerusalem Post.
Radler pleaded guilty in 2005 in a deal in which he agreed to testify against Black. Radler was sentenced to 29 months in prison. Last year, Black got a 6.5 year sentence, which he is appealing.
