Margaret Stevenson-Wright against the Sunday Star Times

The Sunday Star Times published an article on August 3, 2025, titled I’ve been ignorant about Israel’s actions for too long.

This was an opinion column about the war in Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian people where the writer said she had seen things comparable to images seen in German concentration camps.

Ms Stevenson-Wright complains that the article has breached Principles (4) Comment and Fact and (5) Columns, Blogs, Opinion and Letters. She complained about the writer’s comment that “there is something worse than a holocaust and that’s a second holocaust, perpetuated by the people who should know better because they survived the last one.”

“The parallel drawn between Gaza and the holocaust was offensive and absurd, and silence on the part of Hamas in Gaza as set out in my complaint to the Editor, made the column factually inaccurate by omission. The false foundation of fact likely left many readers with an understanding that diminished the evil of the holocaust and unfairly solely blamed Israel for the current situation in Gaza.”

The editor responded:

“We defend the right of our columnists to express an opinion that may be uncomfortable to some. We are very careful to label such articles opinion and while you might disagree with Kylie [the writer], she made it very clear that she was writing from a personal perspective. Regarding balance, it would not be labelled opinion if the purpose was to present a balance of arguments for and against. Rather, we seek to provide balance over time, and I am confident that we have achieved this on this particular issue by running a number of articles expressing views both for and against."  

The Media Council does not believe a case has been made to show how the article breaches its principles.

Principle (4) Comment and Fact says: “A clear distinction should be drawn between factual information and comment or opinion. An article that is essentially comment or opinion should be clearly presented as such. Material facts on which an opinion is based should be accurate.”

Principle (5) Columns, Blogs, Opinion and Letters says: "Opinion, whether newspaper column or internet blog, must be clearly identified as such unless a column, blog or other expression of opinion is widely understood to consist largely of the writer’s own opinions. Though requirements for a foundation of fact pertain, with comment and opinion balance is not essential.”

The Council notes the article was clearly labelled an opinion piece.  The writer was entitled to express her strong views, which the complainant and others are entitled to object to.  There was nothing presented in the complaint establishing a clear factual error.

This was a personal statement founded on widespread reporting of what has been happening in Gaza, and where the UN and other agencies have been asserting that war crimes have been committed.

Decision:  No grounds to proceed.