Pro-Palestine activist Zee Mazloum has issued The Australian and its NSW political reporter Alexi Demetriadi with a concerns notice alleging an article published on November 8 titled “Activist Zee Mazloum posted vile Jewish threats” is defamatory.
The issuing of a concerns notice is the first step in defamation proceedings and generally provides the opportunity for a publisher to make amends by way of retraction, apology or similar.
The article alleged that an Instagram account run by Mazloum made a number of antisemitic threats directed at “Arab Jews” living in Brunswick in Melbourne’s inner-north, and alleged Mazloum had made “prolific Instagram posts targeting ‘local Zios’”.
It carried a screenshot of an Instagram story that contained those remarks superimposed on a photo of an Israel flag sticker with a “no” symbol across it.
The article noted that lawyers acting for Mazloum told The Weekend Australian that Mazloum denied writing or posting the remarks on Instagram.
Journalist Alex McKinnon first reported the claim, and writes Mazloum says that the image had been edited, with the abusive text superimposed on the Instagram story. McKinnon reported evidence of this had been sent to Demetriadi ahead of The Australian’s publication via Mazloum’s lawyer, Marque Lawyers principal Michael Bradley.
Demetriadi’s report also detailed the activities of Mazloum’s employer, Hue Consulting, which describes itself as an “anti oppression and anti racism training and consulting organisation”.
The Australian has reported on Hue Consulting and Mazloum previously, with an article by Demetriadi in March carrying the online title “HRC happy to work with Israel hater”. An opinion article by The Australian’s Gemma Tognini in February was titled “Social terrorists gleefully set off weapons of mass doxxing”, and carries a photograph of Mazloum with a caption naming them.
Crikey contacted Demetriadi, Bradley, and The Australian’s editor Kelvin Healey to ask whether they would share the concerns notice reported by McKinnon, or The Australian’s response.
Demetriadi told Crikey that “prior to publication, we had a copy of a screenshot (different to that provided by Mr Bradley), which we consider clearly demonstrates that the text in issue was posted to Mazloum’s Instagram account. We have responded to the concerns notice sent by Mr Bradley and stand by the article”.
Bradley declined to comment when contacted by Crikey.
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