Market sources believe that hundreds of people have cancelled their subscriptions for Hebrew daily "Haaretz" in the wake of the Anat Kam spy case and the involvement of "Haaretz" correspondent Uri Blau. "Haaretz's" customer services have been very busy in the past few days.
A "Haaretz" sales representatives made the following statement in response to requests to cancel subscriptions: "I wish to make the following points. This whole affair is known, and, as is known, everything was done with the approval of the military censor. They claim that there are documents in the possession of journalist Uri Blau, who was cooperating with the Israel Security Agency. He gave them the documents and they were destroyed, apparently without examining them.
"I understand your protest irrespective of your political opinions. A subscriber will stay for many years not just because of this correspondent. We have other supplements and public opinion is important to us."
The sales rep proposed waiting for the issue to be clarified, and noted that a legal hearing on the case will be held on April 14, and suggested waiting until then. The sales rep concluded by offering the paper several days for free until the subscriber makes a final decision on whether to cancel.
MK Israel Hasson (Kadima) suspended his "Haaretz" subscription in the wake of the affair. When the case was disclosed, he said, "I call on every 'Haaretz' subscriber to act as I did and to freeze their subscriptions immediately until the 'Haaretz' correspondent, Uri Blau, returns all the documents given him by Anat Kam, comes in for questioning, and is fired immediately. It's impossible to break the law and harm the security of the nation and our children, while simultaneously seeking cover on the grounds of freedom of expression and the public's right to know."
Hasson added that he would ask the Knesset Speaker to cancel all Knesset subscriptions to "Haaretz".
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 13, 2010
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