Media freedom in Australia is at stake in a complaint made to the Human Rights Commission by the Zionist Federation of Australia.
PEN Sydney is concerned by the Zionist Federation of Australia’s (ZFA’s) referral of Mary Kostakidis to the Human Rights Commission. PEN Sydney believes this action is an attempt to silence a journalist and obstruct the public’s right to information.
Earlier last month it was reported that ZFA filed a complaint against prominent journalist Mary Kostakidis, with the Australian Human Rights Commission for allegedly breaching The Racial Discrimination Act. According to the report the accusation related to two social media posts in which Mary Kostakidis shared a speech by Hassan Nasrallah the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, along with a personal comment on X.
Alon Cassuto, the chief executive of the ZFA has claimed in a statement that “It is irresponsible and dangerous for a person with Mary Kostakidis’ influence and authority to repeat calls by a terrorist for Jews to be ethnically cleansed ‘from the river to the sea’.
Mary Kostakidis labelled the accusation as “completely misconstruing” her repost, and told The Guardian “Of course, I wasn’t promoting it. I was informing people. That’s what I’m supposed to do,” she added, “As a journalist, it’s my responsibility to show people what one side is saying. Is it not in our interests to know that?”
The ZFA’s complaint comes within the international context of a dramatic deterioration in freedom of expression since 7 October 2023. According to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) “As of Aug 2, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 113 journalists and media workers were among the more than 39,000 killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.” The report adds, “This has meant that it is becoming increasingly hard to document the situation, and CPJ is investigating almost 350 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries.”
On Wednesday 31 July 2024 Human Rights Watch published a submission to the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression in relation to the “Israel-Gaza” hostilities. The submission focuses on four items including “Suppression of pro-Palestinian speech and peaceful protests; Safety of journalists and press freedom in Gaza and Lebanon; and the role, responsibilities, and responses of social media companies to respect freedom of expression in relation to the hostilities;…”
The Israeli government and Zionist organisations around the world have actively and successfully acted to suppress the free dissemination of accurate information on the current war in Israel-Palestine, shaping the discourse around language used in reporting, news, panel discussions and even the way questions are framed. Some media outlets in The West, including Australia, have failed to maintain their impartiality. Zionist Groups in Australia have monitored and threatened small community media outlets and mainstream media about publishing news and opinion on the war in Gaza.
It’s highly alarming to witness the extreme religious ideologies that have emerged in far-right organisations, certain governments and their proxies around the globe – countries like Israel, Iran, Turkey, India, Argentina, Italy, Hungary, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.
The common phenomenon among these regimes is intolerance towards thinking differently, cracking down on freedom of expression in all forms, employing various strategies to bully, intimidate, threaten writers, journalists, activists and intellectuals.
PEN Sydney, strongly condemn any attempts to silence Mary Kostakidis and demand that the ZFA drop all complaints and allegations against her.