The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance has released a strong statement of support for former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis in her fight to defend free speech against legal and media attacks from the Zionist Federation of Australia.

The statement, from the journalists’ union, also backed former ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf and journalist Peter Lalor. Lattouf, who won a wrongful dismissal case against the ABC, was awarded $150,000 in pecuniary penalties by the federal court on Wednesday.

Lalor was terminated from a sports commentator’s job at SEN due to a social media statement about the war in Gaza.

The MEAA statement said it had always fought “for media freedoms, rebuking censorship and calling for access to information”.

“Since 7 October, MEAA has seen a rise in threats, harassment, and intimidation of journalists who report and comment on Gaza.

“High-profile journalists including Antoinette Lattouf, Peter Lalor and Mary Kostakidis have found themselves dismissed, censored and harassed by powerful lobby groups, who seek to undermine press freedom.

“When reporting, MEAA journalists are subject to the code of ethics, who in their professional capacity, often provide critical commentary on political warfare. These are the tenets of democracy.

“Our colleagues across the entertainment and arts sectors are also facing censorship on Australian stages and screens.

“We stand with our colleagues in their workplaces, in the courtrooms, and in their deaths to raise our voices against the silence.”

Contacted for comment, the organisation Australians for Humanity said: “Mary Kostakidis is a most respected Australian journalist. It is so good to see the MEAA statement of support recognising that she always speaks truth to power in reporting the harsh realities of global politics today”.

Margaret Reynolds and Stuart Rees said on behalf of the organisation: “Mary has personally experienced a concerted campaign against her efforts to report on genocide in Gaza .The Australian media cannot succumb to the pressure of those who want to restrict access to factual news.”

Kostakidis has been accused by the ZFA of making allegedly offensive remarks in two tweets in January 2024.

The ZFA 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”.

The MEAA statement assumes added significance as it comes at a time when journalists by the dozen have been killed in Gaza by the Zionist Government of Israel in the course of doing their jobs.