Israeli website editors could find themselves bearing a new responsibility. The ministerial legislative committee yesterday approved a private members bill by MK Israel Hasson (Yisrael Beiteinu) that imposes legal and criminal liability on talkback writers and on the talkback website editors. The bill only applies to websites with a daily average of more than 50,000 hits during a month.
Hasson's bill is basically an amendment to the Libel Law (5725-1965), and the Protection of Privacy Law (5741-1981), by expanding the definition of "newspaper" to include websites, and expanding the definition of "publisher" to include website operators.
Hasson told "Globes", "We've taken a major step forward towards improving the culture of debate in Israel. I'm pleased for all those who've been hurt and who could be hurt, and I hope that we've contributed something towards stopping the venom and the ruin of human dignity."
Walla! Editor-in-chief Avi Meshulam believes that Hasson's motives are rather different. Meshulam said, "I think that the aim of this law is to enable MK Hasson to get interviewed in the media on matters outside the purview of his party, but which are very popular. The law seems illogical to me, since we do this as a matter of course. No talkback goes on the air without us checking it, as stipulated by the Libel Law. That's why we have no intention of fighting it. One of main problems with this bill is how will the authorities precisely know many hits a day does a website gets? That will require the registration of websites, which is acceptable in tyrannies."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 14, 2008
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