Former SBS news presenter Mary Kostakidis has been awarded Consortium News’ 2026 Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award at a ceremony in Sydney.
The award was presented on Sunday, June 14, by Consortium News editor Joe Lauria, who praised Kostakidis for being part of a group of journalists who challenge mainstream narratives on foreign policy and war reporting.
At the ceremony, Lauria also noted that the award was created in honour of US journalist Gary Webb, whose reporting on the CIA and the Contra cocaine scandal was later vindicated in part by an internal CIA investigation.
Mary Kostakidis is currently facing a lawsuit launched earlier this year by Alon Cassuto, CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia, over posts she shared on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. The application asserts that these posts breached the Racial Discrimination Act.
The posts, published on January 4 and 13, 2024, featured comments by Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader.
Nasrallah was assassinated by the Israeli Air Force on September 27, 2024 when it targeted Hezbollah’s headquarters in southern Beirut, Lebanon. The airstrike killed at least six people and injured over 90, with several others reported missing.
According to Cassuto’s application, the posts were in breach of the Racial Discrimination Act because they were “reasonably likely in all the circumstances to offend, insult, humiliate and/or intimidate Australian Jews and/or Israelis in Australia”.
Mary Kostakidis and her legal team have vigorously rejected Cassuto’s allegations.
They have legitimately argued that extracts from Nasrallah’s speeches singled out by Cassuto’s legal team were not anti-Semitic. Rather they were “directed to the Israeli government and the state of Israel, and not a criticism of Jewish people in any way.”
Conflating criticism of the Israeli state with anti-Semitism has been a favoured tactic of Israeli authorities and their defenders around the world for decades in order to discredit and suppress such criticism.
In commenting on the law suit, Kostakidis has said the case “raises important questions about the limits on free speech”.
“I’m a strong believer in freedom of the press and the freedom of political expression,” she said.
“I will defend my right to report news and the right of every journalist to do so and the right of every Australian to engage in public debate.”
A longer video of the award ceremony containing statements made by a range of Kostakidis’ supporters can be accessed here (duration 49 min 36 sec).
The supporters include Peter Cronau, Wendy Bacon, Michael West, Cathy Vogan, Sawsan Madina, Senator David Shoebridge, Elena Elefterias, Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, Tim Anderson, Caitlin Johnstone, Antony Loewenstein, Scott Ludlam and Stuart Rees.
The trial associated with the Federal Court case brought against Mary Kostakidis is scheduled to commence on November 30, 2026. The presiding judge has set aside three weeks for the trial.
Notes
Shahram Akbarzadeh, ‘Australia, don’t conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel’, Opinion, Al Jazeera, Jun 2, 2026.
Jordyn Beazley, ‘University of Sydney argues academic’s article not racist against Jewish people as ‘Zionism is a political concept’’, The Guardian, Oct 13, 2015.