|
Court convicts top papers for publishing prostitution ads
By Yaakov Katz and Hilary Leila Krieger
Septemeber 20, 2004
The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court last week convicted senior employees of the
Yediot Ahronot and Maariv daily newspapers and employees of the Shocken news
association, owner of Haaretz daily, for illegally publishing
prostitution-soliciting ads in their newspapers.
The employees who were convicted were Yosef Varshevsky, CEO of Shocken news
association; Ron Kleinfield, former head of advertisement at Maariv; and Ronen
Shapira, head of Yediot Ahronot advertising.
The owners of the newspapers – Arnon Moses, Yaakov Nimrodi and Amos Shocken –
were not charged in the indictment.
The three senior employees were convicted after being charged with
transgressing Section 205C of the Penal Code, which clearly states: "One who
publishes a prostitution-soliciting ad is liable to six months in prison."
According to the indictment, Shocken published 30 ads, Maariv 250
andI>Yediot Ahronot some 500.
In his decision, Judge David Be'ari wrote that he does not accept the
prosecution's opinion that each ad should be viewed as an independent offense
but he did back up the Knesset, which passed the innovative, law several years
ago.
"Prostitution is not illegal but on the other hand it is not an ordinary
profession," Be'ari wrote in his decision. "In light of the legislator's
approach towards the profession I believe that specific restrictions regarding
advertisements is probable and serves a worthy purpose."
Chaya Bina-Katz, a lawyer at Kabiri-Nevo-Keidar, which represents Atzum in the
organization's campaign against women trafficking, hailed the decision as "a
huge step in clearing the press from bad phenomena like this."
She said that Atzum has complained that, "The publication [of these ads] is
aiding the phenomenon of women trafficking. By publishing advertisements of
prostitution services of women, who have fallen victim to the phenomena of
trafficking, the different newspapers are helping criminals to carry out their
perverted crimes."
Copyright 1999-2004, Jerusalem Post. All rights reserved. No content
may be reproduced in whole or part without written permission. Please
contact us via the link below for re-print and syndication policies.
|
|
 |
