The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) is trying to prevent the broadcast of part of a probe by journalist Miki Rosenthal in the season opener of investigative series "Bulldozer." The Channel 2 broadcast is due Thursday.

Sources in the IAA said they are seeking an injunction to stop the airing of a sound recording Rosenthal made during a visit to the control tower at Ben-Gurion International Airport, which the IAA said was recorded secretly.

The IAA also filed a police complaint against Rosenthal.

	Advertisement

Rosenthal said he has uncovered serious safety problems at the airport that endanger passengers, including in the control tower and on the runways.

During his investigation of flight and visitor safety at the airport, Rosenthal recorded an interview with the director of the control tower, Eylon Tal, in the tower. According to an IAA source, "Rosenthal said the microphone was off, but it was on."

Among the safety problems Rosenthal said the probe reveals and which he said are known to all concerned, "the control tower is very defective. The structure of the runways is dangerous for the passengers and only a miracle has prevented real disasters. Landing equipment is missing on one of the runways and air space is limited by the Air Force."

Rosenthal said that during his interview with Tal, which was approved by the IAA spokesman, Shmuel Hefetz, the microphone was clipped to Tal's clothing and he knew it was on when he was answering the questions.

Suddenly, in the middle of the interview, the phone rang. Someone nearby must have heard the remarks and called Hefetz. I heard Tal say, 'What - do you want me to lie? We are in a control tower whose conditions are from the Middle Ages, and everything here is a catastrophe. I am not prepared to lie to the media and I will tell only the truth, and the truth is that the situation here is dangerous to the passengers.' Tal then told me he had to stop the interview," Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal said that "the police investigate crimes, but I would feel like a criminal if I did not make this information known."

Channel 2 franchisee Keshet responded,"During filming at the control tower the team recorded a conversation between the IAA spokesman and the director of the tower, which clearly revealed that the equipment in the tower is outmoded and constitutes great danger to passenger safety. The team insists that this was recorded legally, because the conversation took place in the middle of an interview while Tal was wearing a microphone."

The IAA said in response that during filming of the Bulldozer segment, "Two airport staffers were recorded during a private conversation. On the face of things, this is a secret recording, which is a crime, and therefore, on the recommendation of the IAA legal counsel, the staffers in question filed a police complaint." The IAA also said that it had "cooperated fully with the program's team at the request of the producer, owners and the star, Miki Rosenthal. Unfortunately, instead of making use of the abundance of materials presented legally to present a fair journalistic investigation, Rosenthal decided to make use of materials that might have been obtained in a criminal manner, of half-truths and manipulations to create a TV program that is nothing but a provocation."