Last update - 00:00 31/12/2007
Panel drops bill forbidding release of suspects names before indictment
By Yuval Yoaz and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
The Knesset Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided Monday morning to accept an appeal filed by Ministers Yaakov Edri and Ami Ayalon, opposing a bill that would prohibit the media from publishing names of suspects or details of investigations before the filing of an indictment.
The committee's approval of the appeal means that the bill will not proceed to its first reading in the Knesset.
The committee's decision comes in contradiction to last week's decision to support the bill, which was then later passed in a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum.
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, who was not present at last week's committee meeting, headed Monday's ministerial committee meeting.
Edri and Ayalon maintained that the bill, in its present form, would cause a blow to democracy and the public's right to know.
Minister Ayalon explained that since this right lends great significance to public criticism.
"The appropriate balance between the various interests - on the one hand the right to privacy, and on the other the right of the public to know - changes in accordance with the type of offenses and the identities of the suspects," said Ayalon, who praised the committee's decision.
Related articles: