Case Number

HCJ 258/07

Date Decided

2-6-2007

Decision Type

Original

Document Type

Full Opinion

Abstract

Facts: The government set up a commission of investigation to examine what happened in the war in Lebanon in 2006. The commission decided to hold all of its proceedings in camera and not to publish any transcripts of the proceedings, on the ground that they were privileged for the reason of state security. This decision was challenged by the petitioner, who argued that the proceedings should only be held in camera if holding them in public would give rise to a near certainty of serious harm to state security, and that transcripts of those parts of the proceedings that did not satisfy this test should be published. The commission argued that it could not know in advance whether testimonies would contain privileged matters or not. It also argued that publishing the transcripts would require considerable work given the need to exclude matters that were privileged and proposed to do so only after presenting its final report, since to do so earlier would delay the preparation of the report.

Held: Most of the testimonies had already been heard by the commission when the petition was filed. Therefore, the question of hearing those testimonies in public was no longer relevant. The commission did not dispute that it was subject to the rule of publicity, according to which holding proceedings in public is the rule whereas holding them in camera is the exception. The presumption should therefore be that the commission would conduct itself accordingly, and would examine whether all or some of the testimonies that might be heard at a later stage could be heard in public. With regard to the publication of the transcripts of the commission’s hearings, the court held that the commission should publish those parts of the transcripts that were not privileged within a reasonable time, before the final report was presented to the government. Subject to these guidelines, the petition was denied.

Keywords

Constitutional Law -- State of Emergency and National Security, Courts -- Publicizing proceedings

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