Israel: a court bars any mention of the 'Prisoner X' case
An Israeli judge ordered Israeli media barred from any mention of a prisoner held under a false identity, or of the order itself, applying a system under which security-related stories must be reviewed and cleared by the military before publication.123
- Country
- Israel (RSF 2026 rank: 116th of 180)
- Where
- Israel
- Level of government
- National
- Tactic
- Prior restraint
- Stage
- Silence (see the ladder)
- Ladder note
- A court order barred any domestic mention of a named prisoner's case or of the order itself, backed by a standing system requiring advance approval of security reporting.
- Head of government at the time
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- Issue of the day
- The order concerned the custody of a man later identified as Ben Zygier, an Australian-Israeli detained on suspicion of harming state security, whose case Israeli outlets could not report on for years under the order.
- Outcome
- Unknown, June 1, 2010. The source reviewed, a 2013 annual survey, documents the order's existence and Israel's wider military review system without stating when the domestic order was resolved.
- Era
- The 2010s
What happened
In June 2010, Israeli district court judge Hila Gerstl issued a court order banning any mention of a prisoner who came to be known publicly only as "Prisoner X," or of the circumstances of his custody, and separately prohibited any mention that the order itself existed. The order operated alongside Israel's long-standing military review system, under which all news publications dealing with security issues must be approved in advance by a military reviewing authority before publication, a standard Israel's High Court has said requires proof that publication would cause imminent, certain and actual harm to state security. Israeli authorities separately maintained an informal Editors' Committee, through which the prime minister's office asked media heads not to publish information described as very embarrassing to a government agency in exchange for advance notice of such information; Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn declined to take part, saying the arrangement would turn editors into intelligence assets rather than independent journalists.123
The order remained in force inside Israel for years; the case became publicly known only through international reporting.123
What reason was given
Not stated in the sources reviewed as a specific published order; Israel's general standard for pre-publication military review, as set by the High Court, requires proof that publication would cause "imminent, certain, and actual harm to state security."1
What changed for reporting
Israeli media were barred from reporting on the prisoner's case at all for years, and could not even acknowledge that a court order existed, while Israel's wider military review system required advance approval for any security-related story.2
Timeline
2010
Who acted
| Name | Role in this incident | Office at the time |
|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Netanyahu | other | Prime Minister of Israel |
| Hila Gerstl | ordered | Israeli district court judge |
Outlets and journalists
Sources
Claims cited
- Israel's High Court requires proof that publication would cause imminent, certain and actual harm to state security before security-related material can be censored.
imminent, certain, and actual harm to state security
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014-02-12. Claim 518, checked 2026-09-22. - Haaretz's editor-in-chief declined to join the informal Editors' Committee, saying it would make editors into intelligence assets.
turn editors into intelligence 'assets'
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014-02-12. Claim 519, checked 2026-09-22. - The judge's order banned any mention of the prisoner or the circumstances of his custody, and of the order itself.
banning "any mention of Prisoner X or the circumstances of his custody", and even prohibited mention of the order itself
Attacks on the Press in 2013: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Committee to Protect Journalists, 2014-02-12. Claim 584, checked 2026-09-22.