ABSTRACT
Asked to choose the greater danger to a free press-that of censorship by the military (in the name of political self-interest) or that of censorship by press owners (in the name of economic self-interest)—senior journalists in Israel unanimously name the latter.* Military censorship, they believe, is more negotiable, and less opposed to journalistic values, than capitalist censorship. This is not surprising when one remembers the history of the Hebrew press, which started as a pre-state revolutionary press, committed to self-censorship in all matters which may harm the Zionist movement and the incipient state (described in chapter 2). And the commitment did not vanish with the establishment of the state, as it was commonly accepted that the nascent Israel was still vulnerable and in need of protection.
