From the Liveblog of
Sunday, November 10, 2024
Netanyahu’s chief of staff threatens legal action against news outlet alleging he blackmailed IDF officer
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Tzachi Braverman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff, threatens legal action if the Kan public broadcaster doesn’t remove a report from earlier today alleging that Braverman blackmailed an IDF officer to alter minutes from wartime meetings by threatening him with a sensitive video recording.
The Prime Minister’s Office releases a letter to Kan political reporter Michael Shemesh and Kan director general Golan Yochpaz from Braverman’s lawyer Oriel Nizri demanding an immediate apology and the retraction of the article, alongside damages of NIS 100,000 ($26,670).
The letter calls the Kan report “lies, ‘fake news,’ and severe slander, alongside wild incitement in a time of war.” It denies entirely that Braverman has any sensitive recording or that he tried to blackmail any officer.
Nizri claims that Kan did not ask for a response from Braverman before publicizing the report.
The letter points to the 1965 law on slander, which states: “The publication of slander in the media, criminal and civil responsibility will be borne by the individual who brought the slander to the media outlet and thus caused its publication, the editor of the outlet, and the individual who decided in practice to publish it, and civil responsibility will also be borne by the outlet.”
If Kan does not comply, Nizri threatens “a series of legal actions” against the outlet and Shemesh.
“No more warning letters will be sent,” the letter ends.
The Kan report stated that the video in question had been obtained from security cameras in the Prime Minister’s Office and that other PMO employees had been allowed to watch the recording.
In an earlier statement, Braverman denied any such activity, calling the report “false” and “defamatory,” and claiming he had neither obtained any such video nor attempted to use it for blackmail purposes: “This is a lie from start to finish, whose aim is to harm me and the Prime Minister’s Office in the middle of a war.”
According to reports, a complaint was filed several months ago with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi claiming that the PMO was holding, and making inappropriate use of, sensitive footage of an IDF officer.
