Mosdos Shuvu Yisrael and Bentzion Suki, who is close to Rav Yoshiyahu Pinto have filed a 100 million libel suit against the TV news magazine program “Uvda” (Fact) and its host, Yael Dayan.
A month following the airing of the show targeting Mosdos Shuvu Yisrael, Rav Pinto on Wednesday 27 Sivan 5774 filed the lawsuit in New York. The program aired in May 2014, based on the show’s investigation into the head of Shuvu Yisrael, Rav Pinto. The lawsuit alleges the documentary intended to defame the rav and those close to him, doing so by ignoring facts in the case.
Attorneys for Rav Pinto stipulate that persons connected to the program turned to Bentzion Suki on a Friday, just days ahead of the program. Suki explains he tried contacting Dayan a number of times, seeking to present her with documents to scrap the program but she preferred to ignore him and run the show.
The lawsuit was filed in New York, where the rav resides and where the show was aired. Suki explains that due to the airing of the program the rav’s business dealings in New York have been suffered significantly.
Many eyebrows were raised in the TV industry and the media the next day, when production officials decided to remove the show from its site and its Facebook page. The show was a season’s finale and a flagship program of research and reality TV for Uvda.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Virtually no chance of winning a defamation suit in New York, since he would have to prove that the people he was suing knew they were lying. He would need something like an email saying “let’s dream up some false, and really bad and hateful, and then broadcast it?”.