The Israel Hayom daily removes its public archive of past editions from its website, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to release the dates of his phone conversations with owner Sheldon Adelson and former editor-in-chief Amos Regev.
Only editions published in 2017 are now available.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal by Channel 10 investigative journalist Raviv Drucker and ordered Netanyahu to release the information on the phone calls, citing public interest.
The full log, released on Sunday, reveals that Netanyahu held a total of 120 phone conversations with Adelson between 2012-2015 and 223 with Regev during during the same time period.
A man hands out the free daily newspaper ‘Israel Hayom’ to passersby on Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem. March 7, 2012. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
In many of the cases, late-night phone calls were followed by Israel Hayom front pages praising the prime minister, attacking his detractors or even quoting unnamed sources providing dubious revelations about dramatic political developments.
The online archive has allowed journalists to check the dates of the phone calls against the next day’s Israel Hayom edition.
A spokesperson for the newspaper said that the archive was being moved to a new digital system and its removal “had nothing to do” with the publication of the prime minister’s phone log.
— Raoul Wootliff
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this