From the Liveblog of
Monday, April 5, 2021
Yeshua: Pressure over coverage intensified before elections, regulatory moves
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleJudah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
Former Walla news CEO Ilan Yeshua says he received the most orders and pressure in the lead-up to the 2013 and 2015 elections and when the Communications Ministry was due to approve a measure that would affect the Bezeq telecommunications firm, which was controlled by the defendants Shaul and Iris Elovitch.
“There were times that Shaul or Iris [Elovitch] would say: Take that article down now! Next week [Netanyahu] needs to sign off on something for me — that something regulatory was happening,” Yeshua says.
Netanyahu is accused of offering regulatory favors to the Elovitches in exchange for favorable coverage by the Walla news site, which they controlled through Bezeq.
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