The source of the leak was revealed in the course of police questioning of Ha'aretz reporter Baruch Kra, the journalist who broke the story. The Movement for Quality Government and various human rights groups protested loudly that the police should not question a journalist about his sources. Their claim is that journalistic sources are sacrosanct and that threatening the confidentiality of those sources threatens freedom of the press.
On the surface, this might be a valid point. But the information that Glat-Berkovitz leaked was classified, and was part of an on-going investigation by the Justice Ministry, of whom she is an employee.
This morning, she admitted that she leaked the story to Kra out of political motives. She does not want to see Ariel Sharon re-elected as Prime Minister in next week's elections, and she thought that this story might torpedo his campaign. Her actions have justified the decades of complaints that Israel's judiciary and media are politicized to the point that they cannot be effective arbiters or outlets of public expression in democratic Israel.
Indeed, the police claimed this afternoon that the original reason for questioning Kra was the suspicion that he was obstructing the course of justice. Inasmuch as there is a suspicion of criminal wrongdoing in Glat-Berkovitz's actions, the police demand that Kra reveal his source is not a threat to freedom of the press. It is instead a demand that he not conceal criminal activities.
Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein called a press conference this afternoon to announce that Glat-Berkovitz is being suspended from her position, and that he is investigating the possibility of bringing criminal charges against her.
The United States is the world's leading example of democratic freedoms and their proper implementation. In general, the US manages to operate a firm and proper balance between the rights of individuals and groups in society and the needs of society for protection from the abuse of those rights.
In the lead-up to the Gulf War in 1990, a CNN journalist managed to interview Saddam Hussein. The hue and cry that arose in the US was incredible. There were calls for her resignation because she refused to reveal Saddam's hideout. Under certain conditions, this act could have been considered treasonous since it in effect protected the enemy. There was strong debate whether the need to protect journalistic sources justified her refusal to reveal his location. But the fact that there was such strong opinion that she had overstepped the bounds of journalistic integrity was highly instructive.
Journalism is not a tool with which criminal activity can be shielded. Like all other democratic norms, the freedom of the press - including the confidentiality of journalistic sources - has its limits. Those limits exist around the place where criminal activity begins.
In the case of Baruch Kra, he was right to reveal his source. Leora Glat-Berkovitz engaged in criminal activity by leaking classified information about an on-going investigation for political motives. As such, she violated her responsibility as a civil servant not to engage in partisan activities, and she violated the law by revealing classified information and by compromising an on-going investigation. By the same token, the police were fully justified in demanding of Kra that he reveal his source.
Leora Glat-Berkovitz abused her position within the judiciary. She attempted to abuse Israel's freedom of the press. She brought the justice system and the media - two institutions that are generally the first line of defense for democratic principles - into disrepute, thus threatening their role as Israel's beacons of democracy.
The Movement for Quality Government must realize that quality government begins with the proper application of democratic principles. But that proper application does not include granting those principles superiority over the rule of law. The rule of law is itself a basic democratic principle. It is what underpins all the other rights and privileges of democratic societies.
When the rule of law is threatened, and especially when that threat derives from the abuse of other democratic norms, quality government is threatened. It is only through bringing criminal charges against Leora Glat-Berkovitz that some semblance of order can be returned to the application of democratic principles in Israeli society. Rather than protesting, the Movement for Quality Government - and those human rights groups who cherish democratic freedoms - should be encouraging Elyakim Rubinstein to file such charges.
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
