How international news outlets report under Israel’s military censor during wartime

By Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — Every reporter in Israel — and every member of the public — is subject to a military censor. On national security grounds, the regulation authorizes the censor to prohibit reporting or broadcasting any material that could reveal sensitive information or pose a threat to the country’s security interests.

This is particularly sensitive during wartime, where the military censor has made clear that broadcasting any images that reveal the location of interceptor missiles or military sites hit by enemy projectiles is forbidden, especially in live broadcasts.

The general order of the Chief Censor from 1988 states that “every person who prints or publishes printed matter or a publication concerning state security… must submit it to the censor before printing or publishing it.” The order clarified a regulation that has existed since Israel’s founding.

Crucially, it does not give the censor any editorial control over CNN’s coverage at all. It does allow them to make sure no sensitive information is unintentionally revealed. CNN has been transparent about this process when we go through it.

Israel is not the only country that puts restrictions on news media in times of war. In Ukraine, a country under martial law since Russia’s full-scale invasion four years ago, there are strict rules about reporting a withdrawal by Ukrainian troops, for instance, or details of any significant movement of armor or weapons towards the front-line.

Normally, the international media would only deal with the censor on embeds with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Reporting teams would shoot video and allow the censor to review the footage before it airs, a standard practice for embeds with other militaries as well. CNN has reached agreements with the US military before joining missions or seeing certain training exercises.

However, the rules have tightened in this war.

There’s no doubt that the Israeli public has posted videos of missile intercepts and more during this war. A quick search of social media and Telegram channels reveals plenty of these videos. But the censor focuses more on the international media, and it has tightened the restrictions since the war began.

After the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israel, there was no problem showing intercepts in the skies over southern and central Israel. Now the censor has prohibited live broadcasts showing the interception of Iranian ballistic missiles, even as the vast majority have been stopped.

To be clear, international news networks don’t submit every piece of video to the military censor for review. Far from it. CNN has not submitted any video to the censor for review since the war started on Saturday morning. But the censor does prohibit us from putting out live broadcasts of intercepts that could reveal the accuracy of Iranian ballistic missiles or the location of interceptor missile arrays.

Israeli far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has turned the apolitical military censor into a talking point, vowing to “act with severity and zero tolerance” against international media that violate the censorship rules.

In a joint statement with the Minister of Communications, Ben Gvir said police have been dispatched to several locations as “suspects have been detained, incidents investigated, and even arrests made in cases where suspicion arise of violating the guidelines.”

“Anyone who endangers Israel’s citizens in the name of ‘journalistic reporting’ will face a determined and tough police force,” Ben Gvir said. “No concessions, no games.”

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