Lory Shem Tov, an Israeli blogger, was arrested and interrogated for several hours a few days ago, on suspicion of invasion of privacy, for allegedly publishing personal documents regarding the General Manager of the Ministry of Social Affairs on the web, including information regarding his parking tickets and financial loans. The blogger is active in the struggle against the Ministry of Social Affairs and against social workers, who, according to her own words “unjustifiably expropriate the right of parents to raise their children without the intermeddling [of the Ministry or the social workers].” She was released under restrictive conditions on the same day she was arrested, after Police confiscated her work computer, forbade her from publishing reports regarding the General Manager for one month, and demanded that she remove the reports she previously posted, off the web.

The blogger’s attorney expressed his resentment of the General Manager's use of the Police and the criminal track, rather than taking the high road and filing a civil suit. However, the police stated that the blogger “released personal documents whose publication is prohibited under the law, even if the person in question is a public figure, and the punishment prescribed, by law, for this offense, is up to five years imprisonment.”

Law.co.il takes note of the fact the Police is changing its policy regarding invasion of privacy, and is beginning to aggressively enforce this area of law. No, we do not believe that the Police did so merely because the victim is the General Manager of the Ministry of Social Affairs, just as, years ago, we did not believe that the Police interrogated journalists for infringing a trademark (!) merely because the journalists criticized a website operated by policepersons and used its logo.

The General Manager of the Ministry of Social Affairs said that the blogger belongs to a radical group threatening social workers in order to influence their professional judgment. Source: Ha’aretz (In Hebrew, by: Or Kashti).