The Israeli military censor usually tries to stay out of the headlines. It’s not always easy, as several times high-profile Israel-related stories have broken in the US media first, and aren’t “allowed” in Israeli papers for days after.

Those incidents are a constant reminder that in Israel, nothing even vaguely national security-related gets published in an Israeli paper without the military censor’s say-so. Today, the military censor is trying to extend that control even further, presenting “orders” to high-profile bloggers and Facebook users, demanding they be placed under the same control.

At least 30 Israelis have received such orders. Many, like Yossi Gurvitz, are outspoken critics of the Israeli government’s policy. Gurvitz says he will be pursuing legal options to get around having to pre-submit all his criticisms to the military censor and get permission before publishing.

The military censor insists that any webpage that presents itself as “news” counts as media and is therefore liable to submit to censorship. They insist that in the dozens of new orders, they have not yet issued any orders for anyone to remove any publications.

Not that anyone could report on it if they did.

 This content was originally published by AntiWar