Judge Stephen McDonald told the court in the course of a six-minute hearing Thursday that the contention the Zionist Federation of Australia had no case against journalist Mary Kostakidis had to be determined at trial, reports Joe Lauria.
Mary Kostakidis speaks to reporters outside federal court in Adelaide, South Australia ahead of her ‘anti-semitism’ hearing July 29, 2025. (Cathy Vogan for CN)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
A federal judge in Australia has refused to dismiss a case brought by the Zionist Federation of Australia against prominent Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis whom the Federation accuses of racial hatred because of her social media posts critical of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Judge Stephen McDonald ruled Thursday morning local time in Adelaide that he was denying Kostakidis’ bid to dismiss the entire case against her, instead only striking certain paragraphs from the ZFA’s complaint.
In essence, the judge is giving the Zionist Federation a do-over to correct their mistakes in those paragraphs — largely about how to define the allegedly “offended group” of Jews in Australia — in a new amended complaint by Oct. 31.
McDonald rejected the argument of Kostakidis’ lawyers that the Federation’s complaint had failed to disclose “a reasonable cause of action.”
Kostakidis’ barrister Stephen Keim had argued at a July 29 hearing that all or part of the pleading by Cassuto did not represent a reasonable cause of action. For the case to go forward to trial it ought to have a reasonable chance of success, he said.
‘A Case Without Prospect of Success’
The purpose of the Racial Discrimination Act, under which the Zionist Federation is charging Kostakidis, is to prevent racial discrimination, said Keim. Criticising a state’s actions or political ideology has nothing to do with racial discrimination.
The case against Kostakidis, argued Keim, “cannot be struck out [dismissed] merely on the basis that it appears to be weak. We … maintain that the pleaded case does not reveal a weak case. It states a case without any prospect of success.”
But Judge McDonald told the court in the course of the six-minute hearing Thursday that this contention had to be determined at trial.
McDonald is thus giving credence to the scurrilous charge by the Zionist Federation of Australia that one of the best-known and most respected journalists in Australia may be guilty of racial hatred because she dared criticize actions in Gaza by the State of Israel — not the Jewish people — actions that governments, United Nations bodies, human rights organizations and genocide scholars have judged to indeed be genocide.
Kostakidis is nationally known from her nearly two decades as a television news presenter on the SBS Network. She was accused by the ZFA of making allegedly offensive remarks in two tweets in January 2024.
The Federation is charging Kostakidis under Section 18C of Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, which “makes it unlawful for someone to do an act, publicly, that is reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate another person or group of people, based on their race, colour, or national or ethnic origin.”
Section 18D however “provides exemptions that protect freedom of speech in certain circumstances, such as artistic works, scientific debate, and fair comment on matters of public interest.”
Nasrallah Retweets
Palestinians in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on Oct. 9, 2023. (Naaman Omar, Palestinian News & Information Agency, or Wafa, for APAimages, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
ZFA’S CEO Alon Cassuto had filed an initial complaint in July 2024 to the Australian Human Rights Commission about the two Kostakidis retweets, both of which contain video of a speech by the now Israeli-assassinated Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in which he allegedly called for the ethnic cleansing of Israel.
In Kostakidis’ retweeted video, the late Hezbollah leader says: “Here, you don’t have future, and from the river to the sea, the land of Palestine is for the Palestinian people and for the Palestinian people only … “
Above this Nasrallah quote in one of her retweets, Kostakidis wrote: “Israeli govt getting some of its own medicine. Israel has started something it can’t finish with this genocide.”
Cassuto claims this is anti-semitic and wants Kostakidis to apologize, remove the allegedly offensive materials from her X account; promise not to post similar tweets in future and pay his legal costs.
At the July 29 hearing, about which the judge ruled on Thursday, Kostakidis attorney Keim contended that “reporting of statements by a well-known spokesperson for a party in a major conflict is an essential part of news reporting. This may involve reporting offensive statements.”
He argued:
“No ordinary and reasonable person would be offended by such news reports because such ordinary and reasonable person understands the function of news reporting. News reporting of such offensive words is not capable of proving bad motives related to the offensive content on the part of the person doing the reporting.”
Kostakidis’ lawyers had submitted an 11-page affidavit from one of her solicitors listing the wide array of media around the world, including Australian mainstream outlets, that reported on Nasrallah’s speech, many with commentary. It was an effort to place the veteran journalist’s tweets in the context of the widespread coverage of a newsworthy event.
Kostakidis “was acting in accord with orthodox judgments and actions concerning publication made by editors and journalists around the world on a daily basis,” Keim told the court.
Judge McDonald did not agree that based on these arguments the case should be dismissed and that instead it should proceed towards trial, with a case management hearing set for the week of Dec. 15.
Kostakidis responded on X to Thursday’s developments. She said:
“The reality is because of a bad law, a lengthy and costly legal case can be brought against you by anyone who claims you are motivated by racism and are responsible for their feelings. And fair comment on a matter of public interest, and Journalism, may be exceptions that can be pleaded, but that has to be proven at trial. Anyone involved in public discourse, including any journalist, must prove they are not motivated by racism.”
** Breaking: Interlocutory Judgement in my case today (NB journalists this is affects you)
‘It is not logically impossible that a particular news reporter, even when acting as a news reporter, might engage in particular acts because of people’s race or ethnic or national origin.…— ?Mary Kostakidis (@MaryKostakidis) October 9, 2025
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
The Zionist Federation of Australia should be declared as a FOREIN AGENT or ILEAGEL!
It is way way past the time to effectively deal with excessive wealth. “Excessive wealth” meaning wealth – if and when it endows the owner to buy whatever that enlarges its weight to dominate any civic process to the disadvantage of the majority in the civic domain (citizens). In the USA a map is ever growing today of the robbing of the preponderant weight of the voice and interests, and even needs of the majority including the fundamental mission of the 4th Estate to educate and inform from an objective inclusive position events and facts relevant to the well being of the whole -and including the mission of educational institutions themselves to adhere to their mission of drawing forth the intelligence, human gifts, and humanitarian instincts of students through academic freedom that allows all ideas can be entertained in rigorous debate that discloses deeper truths beneficent to the development of a healthy society capable of creating conditions best for its well being and survival. Stupidity apparently reigns in Australian (in)justice just as it does out of the mouths of Stephen Miller, President Pro tem and his colleague and assistant the USA President when he is indisposed, including golf course exercise. Australian stupidity manifested in the inability to distinguish between the political “Zionis”t and the religious “Jewish. ” That capacity – to render distinctions between things, ideas different – ought to be well developed by the adult stage of development. Truth seems so difficult to grasp for so many enjoying material development when being authentically intelligent would put a plug in the money and political power pipeline diminishing portfolios. Have these folk no idea they are debasing themselves? I started to listen to a video on Madame Blavatsky (known to be a spiritual adept) who realized and wrote that there are some on earth without a soul. Interesting.
As an American I am deeply offended by this miscarriage of justice. As an Australian they should be as well. Are Jews and Israel sacred cows? One can only hope that this madness will end.
This is a good time to thank you, Consortium News, for striving to keep us informed in the midst of an ever-tightening noose on free speech.
If you want to know who rules over you, just look for who you are not allowed to criticize.”
? Kevin Alfred Strom
Allowing the case to proceed will allow zfa to further dig their illegal and immoral hole;
an announcement to the world – again – of israel’s illegal & immoral actions.
Rule/judge to give the journalist, Kostakidis, her full freedom of action and make zfa pay for their hurt feelings.
In the US, there is precedent in a case brought against a coop to SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation). The coop-board won. The coop was awarded a fine plus costs, as I recall. I think it was the Olympia coop. I am not sure this would be easy to find with a key-word search. Maybe.