Channel 14 and Walla journalist Yaki Adamker blackmailed high-ranking members of a well-known religious community for a cash bribe of NIS 12,000, TheMarker and Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
Adamker, a parliamentary and Haredi affairs correspondent for Walla and a panelist on Channel 14’s conservative opinion show The Patriots, reportedly was caught extorting the cash after he informed activists from a religious community that he had information that would damage their reputation if it was made public.
להלן הסרטון המלא, לפני עריכה. יקי והמזומנים. לא מבושל ולא נעליים.המרקר והארץ לא ישתיקו אותו. כלום לא ישתיק אותו. כלום, חוץ מ-12 אלף שקל במזומן https://t.co/iCTuSq9MaQ pic.twitter.com/CKkcZEfjbd
— Gur Megiddo גור מגידו (@GurMegiddo) March 20, 2025
Cash for kill
A video published by TheMarker on Thursday shows Adamker meeting with a courier as part of a cash transaction.
The courier leans into Adamker's car to confirm the transaction and hands him the cash.
“We’ve settled the matter, right? The deal is off,” the courier tells Adamker.
Adamker confirms, takes the money, and ends a separate phone call. At this point in the video, he notices a hidden camera on the courier's shirt button.
He becomes visibly frustrated and tries to return the money.
"Why did you film this?" he asks the courier, reaching for the camera.
“I didn’t film you,” the courier replies.
"Take this. I have nothing to discuss with you,” he says in the video. “I don’t trust dishonest people… I trust people, and they try to set me up.”
"I’m not trying to trap you or anything. I’m just telling you—if you don’t say a word, no one will know about this," the courier says.
He then demands that the courier turns the camera off before they continue the conversation about the payment.
Previous blackmail attempts
TheMarker reported that this incident was not the first time the reporter had demanded cash to kill a story.
"Adamker approached the religious community with claims he threatened to publish," an unnamed source told TheMarker. "He demanded money to prevent the publication of a story that was supposed to appear on Walla. They said he had already extorted them in the past and that on previous occasions, they paid similar sums to bury articles.
This time, they decided to put an end to the extortion—so they documented the exchange."
The source said that since the video was recorded, Adamker stopped writing about the religious community in question.
"A sort of ‘balance of terror’ was created—he hasn't written about them since, and they buried the footage," the source told TheMarker.
The only remaining evidence of the extortion attempt is the video since those targeted by Adamker denied any knowledge of the event or its recording.
'An attempt to blackmail'
Adamker denies the Israeli media reports, and called the published footage “manipulated and edited.”
Following the report, Adamker posted on X (formerly Twitter):
"Haaretz, TheMarker, and the radical left will not silence me. The headline reveals their agenda, even though they know the footage is edited and manipulated, filmed as part of a dispute and as part of an investigation I conducted several years ago," he wrote in a statement on X/Twitter on Thursday.
"Four years ago, an attempt was already made to blackmail me with this footage, and I refused—just as I will not surrender now to those trying to silence me.
"Sorry to disappoint them, but I will continue to speak my mind and stand by what I believe in."
Walla has not commented on the allegations against Adamker at this time.
