National Press Club under fire for ‘disgraceful’ invitation to Israeli envoy
Israel has killed more than 250 journalists since October 2023
The National Press Club is fielding heavy criticism for extending a speaking invitation to the Israeli ambassador.
Hillel Newman, Israel’s new envoy to Canberra, addressed the press club on Tuesday, with the speech broadcast on ABC News 24. Unusually, however, Newman’s invitation was not advertised on the press club’s website or social media platforms.
Newman used his press club platform to claim, without evidence, that protesters against Israel’s genocide in Gaza “celebrated the slaughter of Jews and Israelis”, and that pro-Palestinian “graffiti and vandalism... escalated to bullets on Bondi Beach”.
Newman made headlines earlier this month after claiming that the UN is a “politicised body” that has “nothing to do with justice”, and for suggesting that the US-Israeli bombing of a girls’ school in Iran that killed at least 175 people – including more than 100 children – actually targeted a military facility.
“We do not have information yet that this actually was a school and there were children there,” Newman said. “Don’t believe what you hear coming out of Iran.”
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Newman’s invitation to one of Australia’s most prestigious forums has infuriated anti-genocide advocates.
“It is disgraceful that the National Press Club has chosen to platform a representative and an apologist for the genocidal state of Israel, particularly as it expands its war crimes from Gaza to Lebanon and neighbouring countries,” Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), said.
Writing on social media, Greens Senator David Shoebridge said “many who’ve long argued Australian media is biased will see [Newman’s invitation] as proof”.
“The Press Club cancelled Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges after he submitted a speech on the killing of Palestinian journalists, then booked Israel’s ambassador instead. If you wonder why media reporting on Gaza genocide has been so disappointing this is what they think is normal,” Shoebridge said.
Israel’s record of killing journalists
According to figures collated by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Israel has killed at least 259 journalists and media workers since October 2023 – a campaign the CPJ calls “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented”.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate estimates that Israel killed at least 475 family members of Palestinian journalists in the two years to October 2025, as well as destroying 150 media offices and 140 journalists’ homes.
Last Saturday, the Israeli military killed three Lebanese journalists in an airstrike in southern Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) official X account then falsely claimed that one of the journalists, Ali Shoeib, “operated as a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist under the guise of a journalist”. An IDF spokesperson later admitted on Fox News that an accompanying photo of Shoeib supposedly in a Hezbollah military uniform was doctored.
Free press or a free ride?
Based in Canberra, the press club bills itself as “Australia’s most recognised forum for discussion and debate”. Besides the hundreds of journalists, editors, politicians, bureaucrats and diplomats who hold membership, the press club also has more than 80 corporate and government sponsors, including arms manufacturers BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, SAAB Technologies and Thales, as well as mining and energy giants BHP and Woodside Energy.
Despite its self-described status as “a vigorous champion of media freedom”, the press club has said little about Israel’s killing of journalists – or any other matter of press freedom. Its ‘Freedom of the Press’ webpage lists only four public statements, one of which links to an International Association of Press Clubs press release from September 2025 condemning “the killing of journalists in Gaza” while making no mention of Israel.
Two refer to instances where the press club withdrew invitations to scheduled speakers. In March 2022, the press club withdrew a speaking invitation to then-Russian ambassador Alexey Pavlovsky, citing “allegations of war crimes and bombing of civilian targets” in Ukraine, as well as “media censorship in Russia”.
In October 2025, the press club abruptly cancelled a planned address by former New York Times Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges, who was due to speak on Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza. Hedges called the decision “a terrible betrayal of our colleagues in Gaza who have been killed for chronicling the daily savagery in Gaza; for doing their job”.
“No doubt the club is able to slither away from its journalistic integrity. No doubt it is spared the attacks that would come from allowing me to speak. But please, have the decency to remove the word ‘press’ from your club,” Hedges wrote at the time.
The National Press Club and journalist union the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance did not respond to questions.
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No surprise. The National Press Club is a disgrace. Those journalists who are members should be ashamed of themselves. They have completely betrayed their murdered colleagues and rolled over for tummy tickles from their masters. What a farce corporate media is in this country.
You just have to look at the list of sponsors to understand how deeply embedded the NPC is within the military-industrial-financial complex.