The pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom, a political daily distributed free of charge and funded
by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is the main reason for Israel’s dropping to the unflattering “partly
free” category in Freedom House’s 2016
Global Freedom of the Press report. Vanessa Tucker, Freedom House’s vice president for analysis, explains in
the following interview why her organization is concerned about the impact of the Adelson-funded daily on
Israel’s public arena.