The Ministry of Agriculture refuses to disclose why it sought to remove links to publications in "Israel Today" regarding the alleged conflicts of interest of CEO Nahum Itzkovich with the Poultry Board
Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture
Photography:
Dudi Vaknin - Archive
The Ministry of Agriculture refuses to provide documentation of documents or correspondence that led to the ministry's decision to contact Wikipedia, demanding that Israel Today censor publications about alleged conflicts of interest in the ministry's director general, Nahum Itzkovich, with the Poultry Council.
In response to a request for freedom of information in this matter, the ministry replied: "There were no frontal discussions on the subject, as such correspondence took place but we will not be able to deliver them."
This refusal of the Ministry of Agriculture, published here for the first time, is ostensibly contrary to the spirit of High Court rulings in similar cases.
The Ministry of Agriculture also reveals for the first time that the person who instructed the ministry's employees to delete the publications about Itzkovich from Wikipedia was none other than the CEO himself. In response to the question of who was involved in the decision to contact Wikipedia, the ministry replied: Editing Wikipedia entries ".
The Ministry of Agriculture also claims that "no proceeds from the ministry have been transferred to Wikipedia or any other person related to Wikipedia, this is a free platform" - but the ministry's username on Wikipedia, which appears on the platform under the English acronym MOAG2020 - is defined as "paid user" Wikipedia "charges a fee for some or all of its edits on Wikipedia."
The details known to us are taken from the Ministry of Agriculture's response to two recent requests for freedom of information, from a measurement site and from our interest organization.
The requests concern the exposure of "Israel Today" about a month and a half ago regarding the deletion of the newspaper's publications from CEO Itzkovich's entry on Wikipedia.
The original paragraph that was deleted referred to the August 9 issue of the newspaper under the headline: "Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture holds egg quotas - no chicken coop."
It should be emphasized that in his response to the article, the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed the publication that "the director general of the Ministry of Agriculture produces his quota at another grower."
There was no satisfaction
Wikipedia initially refrained from taking a position and contented itself with a concise report that accurately reflected our publication, but CEO Itzkovich was dissatisfied with the unflattering information about him.
In the past, High Court justices were required to restrict "internal information." In an article published at the time by journalist Raviv Drucker, who served as chairman of the Freedom of Information Movement, it was stated that "only if there is a concrete reason The section can be used. "