The social activist posted a YouTube video describing the YM Police Intelligence Coordinator as "Green-eyed Snake," "Harasser" and "Merciless Mecca" • Court: This is defamation

• Attorney Barak Cohen

  Photo: 

  Yossi Seliger

Social activist Attorney Barak Cohen will have to pay NIS 150,000 in compensation to Alon Hamdanani, intelligence coordinator of the Jerusalem Police, after publishing a poem and satirical video against him. In the song in question, the intelligence coordinator is described as a "green-eyed snake" who "collects and harasses" Uterus ”and more.

In a video uploaded to YouTube, Cohen sings the lyrics - which he wrote and composed - accompanied by an animated video: "A green-eyed snake roams the streets, gathers and harasses, eats the people, without uniforms and laws and without God, mercilessly beats all children."

The video features animated green snake watching forest animals. The words of the refrain are: "Greedy junior policeman - information coordinator for the regime".

However, the police did not receive the video in humor. Following the video upload, Cohen was arrested and investigated on suspicion of insulting a public servant and disturbing a policeman. Later, an indictment was filed against Cohen and he was convicted of offenses attributed to him.

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Cohen's arrest covers the media and Walla !, Channel 10 and non-stop radio, and as part of this coverage, excerpts of the song were released accompanied by the video for which he was arrested.

Later, the video star, the filmmaker, filed a civil lawsuit for slander against Cohen and the media that published excerpts from the video. The claim amount is NIS 2.8 million.

The judgment, given by Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Bar-Am, stated that the song and video contained content that was defamatory to the plaintiff, and that the publications made by Cohen were not covered by the protections recognized by the law. Following this, the court partially accepted the lawsuit against Barak Cohen, ruling that he should compensate the policeman for NIS 150,000.

At the same time, the court dismissed the suit against the media. The court ruled that all media outlets were protected publications in the face of "responsible journalism protection". In this matter, it was determined that in arresting a person who wrote a critical poem against the Israeli police there was considerable public interest, and therefore a press obligation was imposed on the media to publish it. The court also accepted the media claim that the publication of the poem or sections thereof was necessary and obligatory in order to realize the significant public interest inherent in the publications.

The court also held that the media publications are also protected by virtue of the protection of the advertising truth. In this context, it was held that because the video constituted an important fact for the public, and that they did not verify the claims in the video to the plaintiff and did not add credence to them, but presented them as Cohen's allegations only - the fact that the video was actually published by Cohen to cover the protection of the truth.

It was further held that the publications made by the media after the indictment against Cohen constitute a correct and fair report of what was said in a judicial proceeding, and therefore cannot serve as grounds for civil action.

The court obliged the police officer to pay ten thousand shekels of court costs for each of the media he sued.

Alon Hamdani will be presented by Adv. Asher Ohayon, Barak Cohen will be presented by Adv. Jonathan Klinger, Channel 10 (now Network) will be presented by Adv. Doron Cole, a non-stop radio station will be presented by Adv. Walla Communications will be presented by Attorney Nir Harel.