Journalist Ben Caspit has filed a ₪200,000 defamation suit against Channel 14, accusing the network of running a series of false publications that blamed him for the uproar over remarks by his former radio co-host Yinon Magal.
The suit, filed this week in Herzliya Magistrate’s Court through attorney Liad Wartzhaizer, names Channel Yehudi Israeli Ltd., which holds Channel 14’s broadcast license, and Achshav 14 Digital Ltd., the company behind the channel’s news website.
“I have just filed, through attorney Liad Wartzhaizer, a defamation suit against Channel 14,” Caspit wrote on X on Thursday. “Following Magal’s hate speech against bereaved families, the headline on Channel 14 was ‘Ben Caspit’s hate campaign failed.’ Let’s see if that holds up in court.”
The suit centers on six publications distributed across the channel’s platforms. One, published on October 9, showed photos of Caspit and Magal under the headline “Ben Caspit’s hate campaign failed.”
The dispute follows a public storm over comments Magal made on air about bereaved families and returned hostages, for which he later apologized. According to the filing, once Magal was forced to apologize, Channel 14 chose to make Caspit the focus of the story. Caspit argues the publications were a deliberate move to deflect criticism away from Magal and that they falsely portrayed his conduct and damaged his reputation.
Caspit says that the day after the broadcast, he posted the relevant segments of the program along with a full transcript, which he says proves his account and shows the channel’s claims had no basis.
Caspit is seeking ₪200,000 in statutory damages, which under Israel’s defamation law do not require proof of actual harm, plus court costs. He is not asking for an injunction against the channel at this stage.
Caspit and Magal co-hosted a program on 103FM for years, sparring regularly from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Caspit said this week that he had stopped broadcasting with Magal, writing that Magal would not allow him to say on air that he is a servant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is not the first legal clash between Caspit and the network. In 2023, Channel 14 sued Caspit and two protest activists for ₪420,000 over a video that claimed the channel had supported Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir.
Channel 14 had not responded publicly to the suit.
