Mohammad Khansa – Al Akhbar June 30, 2025

Since the start of Iran’s retaliatory strikes, Israel has intensified media censorship, barring settlers and media outlets from sharing details or visual materials. On Saturday, the Military Censorship Office in Israel issued a warning to Israeli citizens, stressing that publishing videos from crash sites after Iranian strikes is considered “aiding the enemy in times of war” and compromises state security. “You are urged to refrain from doing so,” the statement read. “If there are any open cameras near military or strategic sites, you are requested to turn them off.”

The Command Front had issued similar warnings several times over the past days, primarily on Telegram, including one at Monday 4:18 a.m., just moments after Iranian missiles struck Tel Aviv (Jaffa). “The IDF emphasizes not to publish and share the locations and footage of hits. The enemy monitors this footage to improve its impact capabilities. Be responsible. Do not share locations online!”

Since the start of the Zionist aggression on Iran, Israeli journalists joined the government in firmly warning the public not to share sensitive information on social media. And as the media policed the public, the government was policing the media.

The Chief Military Censor, Brigadier General Kobi Mandelblit, sent a letter to the media organizations on June 13, with an emphasis on issues that require early submission for review. “In light of the opening blow delivered by the State of Israel against Iran, I find it necessary to clarify the subjects that are prohibited from publication before being submitted for censorship review.”

The directive explained that reports must also be submitted for review if they concern:

• Damage on Israeli territory: attacks on strategic sites or military bases, disruptions to operational readiness or essential services
• Weapons and defense vulnerabilities: information on munitions, interceptor stocks, aircraft or air defense readiness, and classified weapons systems
• International and regional cooperation: joint operations, intelligence sharing, and details on foreign involvement in defense actions

The directive specified that visual materials, such as photos and videos, must also be submitted in advance for censorship review.

The censorship climate has become so pervasive that some media outlets began policing their peers. For example, the well-known news outlet Maariv published an article titled The Lost Battle Over Information Security: Fox News Revealed Sensitive Details About the Israeli Home Front. The article criticized a Fox News reporter for broadcasting live from a major impact site in Gush Dan, one of Israel’s most sensitive areas. In doing so, the article said, “he revealed the exact location of the impact to all Fox News viewers around the world,” the article said.

Security forces quickly removed the reporter, who told viewers before being escorted away: “Iran succeeded in hitting this sensitive location. You can see they are very reluctant to reveal the exact spot where Iran struck a very specific Israeli security target.”

Maariv concluded by advising that “special broadcasts should be conducted under strict censorship and close supervision rather than allowing complete freedom, which enables unnecessary chatter in live studio coverage.”

Since October 2023, Israeli media censorship has reached unprecedented levels. In 2024, Israeli media outlets submitted 20,770 news items to the military censor for review, nearly double the previous year’s total, and four times the number in 2022. The censor intervened in 38% of these cases, a full seven percentage points higher than the previous peak recorded in 2023. Blanket rejections of entire news articles accounted for 20% of all interventions, up from 18 percent in 2023. In the preceding years, the average stood at just 11%.

In 2024, Israel ranked a dismal 101 out of 180 (a drop of 4 places from the previous year’s ranking) in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index. That ranking dropped even further to 112 in 2025.

When censorship is applied, media outlets are forbidden from disclosing that they were censored. As a result, most of its activity remains hidden from the public. No other self-proclaimed Western democracy has an equivalent institution.

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