The suicide of an alleged Mossad spy in an Israeli jail has raised the question of censorship in the digital age.
It has also more widely revealed the inner workings of the Israeli security establishment's relationship with the media.
Ben Zygier, also known as Ben Alon, held dual citizenship - Australian and Israeli.
When he was held by the Israelis his family was informed, but there was a news blackout in Israel on grounds of national security.
It is said that even his guards were unaware of his identity and he became known as Prisoner X.
The blackout continued after his suicide, but on Tuesday Australia's ABC network broadcast details of his death and the background to the case.
The news quickly spread to other foreign news outlets and then onto social media sites in Israel.
Zygier died in Israel's Ayalon Prison Despite, or perhaps because of that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called in the Israeli Editors Committee (IEC) and "asked" members to continue to withhold information.
Breaking the security censorship laws in Israel can lead to prison sentences.
By this point ordinary Israelis were busy sending tweets such as: "Foreign media says the sun is shining in Israel today" and other pointed barbs at how the security establishment was trying to tell the tide not to come in.
What occasionally happens in Israel is that local journalists tell foreign correspondents there, or in other countries, what is going on.
That news surfaces in the foreign media, the Israeli media then writes the story along the lines of: "Foreign media says that ..."
The most recent example of this was the Israeli air strike in Syria last month.
In the case of Prisoner X, the gagging order was so severe that it prevented the "foreign media says" route from operating.
It was only broken after three Israeli politicians used parliamentary immunity to raise the issue in the Knesset which led to a partial lifting of the censorship.
All countries have censorship laws on security and other issues.
Some of the democracies have forums for discussion of security matters between the government and the media.
Israel, which has a vibrant argumentative media, has the IEC.
In the UK, the Official Secrets Act is used to attempt to keep secret information which is regarded as important for national security. It is rarely used against journalists.
The UK also has the DA Notice System, more popularly known as the D Notice.
The government side of this system can only "request" information to be withheld.
The Prisoner X case has shown how limited censorship laws can be in the internet age, especially in democracies.
The Israelis were put in the position of having Australians knowing more about their country than they were allowed to.
The dam has not burst, but it is leaking.
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