Australian Press Council caves into the Zionist lobby and abandons its mission to defend free speech by vilifying cartoonist Cathy Wilcox. Michael West and Kim Wingerei.
Yesterday, the APC, self-proclaimed defenders of free speech, decided to uphold a complaint against SMH/The Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox’s depiction of how Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel lobby pressured the Government into holding a Royal Commission into antisemitism.
The Council found that the cartoon “encoded antisemitic tropes,” ruling “the publications failed to take reasonable steps to avoid causing substantial offence, distress, and prejudice.”
Once again, it is the faceless men (mostly) behind the scenes who attack freedom of speech in the name of “social cohesion” while sowing division and fueling community anger at the behest of a foreign nation in the midst of a genocidal war.
Hung out to dry
MWM understands that the Press Council received scores of anonymous complaints. Cathy Wilcox was never allowed to know the identity of her accusers, nor invited to defend herself, while being vilified on social media as an antisemite.
Her publishers were invited to comment, having already caved in and apologised. Hung out to dry by her own management at Nine Entertainment, Wilcox was also subjected to a Murdoch press smear campaign throughout January.
SMH, January 11, 2026
In its apology, the SMH stated that “independence must never be compromised,” emphasising how cartoonists’ work “appears on the opinion pages because that is what a cartoon is: the artist’s opinion, a first impression of major news events.”
Yet here we are: they backed down, and the APC has abandoned one of our most celebrated cartoonists in favour of a powerful, secretive lobby group that barraged it with a campaign of mass complaints. They caved in to a secretive foreign lobby group which advocates for Israel’s genocide in Gaza – precisely the people lampooned by Wilcox in what ought to be an award-winning cartoon.
Can irony be more glittering?
The Murdoch media, whose cartoonists regularly skewer the powerless – indigenous Australians, migrants and strong women such as Grace Tame – leading the charge to ruin the reputation of a courageous cartoonist beloved by many.
They target their hateful images at the powerless, while Wilcox targeted the powerful.
The ‘offending’ cartoon
Astroturfing laid bare
What Wilcox’s cartoon did so brilliantly was to highlight how astroturfing works. Hers was a classic political cartoon.
In the wake of the Bondi massacre in December, Netanyahu had gone so far as to blame our Prime Minister for the killings. In the cartoon, he was beating the drum above the grass, the astro, where the Israel-supporting celebs, sportspeople, and politicians were clamouring for a Royal Commission.
Below the turf, Murdoch, Segal, Howard, et al., holding up the charade.
At the time of writing, neither the independent members of the APC nor the MEAA have commented on the decision. The MEAA January article condemning the attacks has been removed from their website.
MWM has sent several questions to APC chair Bronte Adams and the council asking about their position on the Israel lobby pressure and if the APC made any effort to address the false narratives propounded by the Israel lobby in Australia (e.g. “40 babies beheaded”), which led to the genocide? We also asked what percentage of their funding comes from the Murdoch press.
We have yet to receive a response.
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