What does it take for a cartoon to breach press council standards? The past decade makes that unclear

A cartoon depicting the Israeli prime minister was found to have caused or contributed to ‘offence, distress or prejudice’. The Australian Press Council’s history on this distinction remains blurry.

Jun 11, 2026

5 min read

Cathy Wilcox's cartoon from January 7 (centre) that has been said to have breached the standards of the Australian Press Council (Image: Crikey)

An illustration by Cathy Wilcox, a cartoonist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age , has been found by the Australian Press Council (APC) to have breached its standards. The cartoon in question was Wilcox’s “Grass roots” work, published on January 7, 2026, which depicts a group of Australian political and media figures marching to the beat of a drum played by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In its adjudication, published across both newspapers yesterday, the APC writes that it considers the cartoon to have imagery that “encodes the antisemitic trope that Jewish people secretly control or manipulate global events, governments, financial systems, or the media … Accordingly, the council concludes that the publications failed to take reasonable steps to avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice”.