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Israeli newspapers fined over prostitution ads
March 18, 2005
For the first time in Israel, major newspapers have been fined for advertising
prostitution services, and senior managers in charge of the advertising
sections have been penalized.
Justice Daniel Beeri of Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court fined Yedioth Ahronoth,
Maariv and the Schocken network, which owns Haaretz, NIS 125,000 each. The
senior editors who stood trial and were responsible for running the ads were
given community service of 150 hours each.
However, the judge expunged the criminal record, claiming a criminal conviction
could harm the defendants' future.
The law prohibiting the advertisement of prostitution services is relatively
new, and the maximum penalty is six months in prison. When meting out the
punishment, Beeri said he took into account that this is the first trial on the
issue.
The three newspapers were accused of publishing 500 ads for prostitution
services between the years 2001 and 2004, on an almost daily basis.
The prosecution asked for the conviction of the newspapers' senior management:
Haaretz's managing director Yosef Warshavski, Maariv managing director Ron
Kleinfeld, and Ronen Shapira, who is charge of the ads page at Yedioth
Ahronoth.
The prosecution claimed that the newspapers were motivated by profit of
millions of shekels, and that each ad brought in NIS 20,000-30,000.
The newspapers said the law passed in the Knesset prohibiting prostitution ads
was ambiguous and susceptible to different interpretations. The newspapers'
attorneys said their clients had tried to cope with the law by changing the
wording of the ads, and that other papers had violated the law, but "for some
reason" the large three papers were taken to task and tried.
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Court
convicts top papers for publishing prostitution ads
9-20-2004
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