Mary Kostakidis

Mary Kostakidis (born 1954) is an Australian journalist and political commentator. She is the former prime time weeknight SBS World News Australia presenter and was the face of SBS over two decades. Her journalism spans geopolitical issues, democracy and press freedom. Her commentary covers areas including the Middle East, national security, intelligence agencies, AUKUS, China, the Russia Ukraine war and the failings of mainstream media. Her work is published by independent media including public policy journal Pearls and Irritations and has used Twitter/X extensively to contemporaneously report court proceedings in great detail, including the four week UK evidentiary Extradition hearing of Julian Assange and subsequent appeals.

Early life She was born in Veria, Greece, and her family migrated to Australia two years later. Kostakidis attended Fort Street Girls' High School, and the University of Sydney, where she studied Modern Greek, philosophy, French, German and Italian. She was a founding member and first president of the university's Greek Society SUGS. She completed a Diploma of Education. Kostakidis was awarded a post-graduate scholarship to study at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.

SBS The "Face of SBS" Kostakidis joined SBS as part of the original management team in September 1980 and worked on the development of the Subtitling Unit, its policy, recruitment and training programme. She went on to become Director of Programme Preparation overseeing Subtitling, Censorship and Classification, and a Post Production Unit. In this role she was responsible for the development of censorship and classification and children's programming policies.

In 1994, she hosted the prime time interview program, The Talk Show. Her guests included Paul Keating, John Laws, Cheryl Kernot, Imran Khan, Betty Friedan and Don Dunstan. According to authors Ien Ang, Gay Hawkins and Lamia Dabboussy, Kostakidis was unhappy with "the introduction of advertisements within [news] programs," and her departure "was clearly a big blow to SBS, and signalled for many that the multicultural broadcaster had lost its way."

On 5 October 2007, Kostakidis lodged a statement of claim in the Federal Court of Australia, alleging a breach of contract and contravention of the Trade Practices Act 1975 on the part of SBS. She alleged that she had been bullied by fellow presenter Stan Grant and had been "intimidated and bullied" by SBS managing director Shaun Brown, who was driving change at SBS he believed would result in a wider audience reach and increased revenue. She was represented in court by prominent Melbourne lawyer, Julian Burnside.

The matter was settled out of court. On 23 November 2007, SBS and Kostakidis were reported to have reached an "amicable settlement". The financial details of the settlement were not disclosed. In 2011, she presented Assange with the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for peace with justice. She described WikiLeaks as an "ingenious website that has shifted the power balance between citizen and the state by exposing what governments really get up to in our name". She said the treatment of Assange by the US was intended to "shut down WikiLeaks and criminalise the activity of this publisher". She has criticised Assange's extradition trial in the UK and the media for a lack of interest in the case.

Israel and Palestine conflict In July 2024, the Zionist Federation of Australia lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission alleging that Kostakidis breached racial discrimination laws by posting on X a link to a speech by Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. Kostakidis said "The point of that tweet was to say that Israel is inviting an escalation, it’s inviting retribution because it is conducting a genocide". In March 2025 the ZFA filed an action against her in the Federal Court and the trial is set for late 2026.

Personal life Her second husband is Professor Ian Wilcox, a cardiologist.

Links to articles, interviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmRhboeF-kA In Conversation with Noam Chomsky, SOH 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIuvQKT4HVw Wikileaks, Assange and Democracy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsark9MuOY Politics in the Pub, with Mark Davis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKkMtKM5gm4 Clinton Fernandes on the Wikileaks Cables https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7F8qr-RUks Kostakidis on Assange stroke in court https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJsZsIJYa2I Saving Assange Now or Never, Politics in the Pub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGstiBKHi6U War or Peace? Mary Kostakidis and Lawrence Wilkerson http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/cutting-assange-loose-demeans-our-nation-20110311-1br15.html http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/assange-faces-enforced-leisure-to-ponder-folly-of-a-law-passed-in-haste-20110711-1hakb.html http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/pms-hard-line-on-hicks-20110618-1g8sy.html http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-diversified-media-can-tell-humanitys-myriad-stories-20120305-1uc62.html?rand=1330909363864 https://web.archive.org/web/20121027093205/http://newmatilda.com/2012/03/12/why-independent-media-must-survive-0 http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/aboutface-on-hicks-a-victory-for-the-bullied-20120724-22n3x.html http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/church-should-submit-to-more-women-in-ranks-20120831-255ic.html https://twitter.com/i/status/1489852587071270913 https://twitter.com/i/status/1489853694426247169 https://twitter.com/i/status/1489855150248247299 https://johnmenadue.com/breaking-horrendous-images-of-burnt-children-after-israel-bombs-rafah-refugee-camp/ https://johnmenadue.com/duggans-fate-hangs-in-the-balance-as-his-lawyers-keep-their-powder-dry/ https://johnmenadue.com/living-in-fear-can-australia-protect-its-citizens-from-our-dangerous-american-ally-ready/ https://johnmenadue.com/australia-is-a-silent-partner-in-atrocity-in-gaza-and-the-west-bank/ https://johnmenadue.com/accessory-to-genocide-in-gaza/ vodacast with Quentin Dempster https://johnmenadue.com/australian-civil-society-submits-statement-on-gaza-genocide-to-the-international-court-of-justice/ with Margaret Reynolds and Alison Broinowski https://johnmenadue.com/the-pretense-of-justice-meted-out-to-assange-by-the-rules-based-order-has-come-undone/ https://johnmenadue.com/we-are-all-aaron-bushnell-dont-write-him-out-of-history/ https://johnmenadue.com/assanges-very-life-at-stake/ https://johnmenadue.com/south-africa-beacon-to-the-world-shames-australias-enabling-of-israeli-genocide/ https://johnmenadue.com/abc-shamelessly-spruiks-china-threat-stories-on-morning-of-alp-national-conference-aukus-debate/ https://johnmenadue.com/wong-defines-australias-foreign-policy/ https://johnmenadue.com/turning-damocles-sword-against-the-people/ https://johnmenadue.com/australian-prime-minister-referred-to-icc-for-complicity-in-genocide/ https://johnmenadue.com/assanges-draconian-prosecution-criminalises-journalism-and-grants-the-us-extraterritorial-reach/ https://johnmenadue.com/antoinette-lattouf-should-be-reinstated/ https://johnmenadue.com/we-are-being-groomed-for-war-with-china-2/ reposted 8 Jan 2024 https://declassifiedaus.org/2022/11/30/watching-the-eyes/ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/23/us-pursues-australian-citizen-with-extradition-threat/ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/04/assanges-draconian-prosecution/ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/04/mary-kostakidis-assanges-very-life-at-stake/ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/17/journalists-rebel-over-gaza-coverage-in-australia/ https://consortiumnews.com/2023/04/20/wongs-australia-all-the-way-with-usa/ https://consortiumnews.com/2023/03/20/iraq-20-years-iraq-invasion-aukus-blasted-in-rousing-sydney-rally/ https://consortiumnews.com/2022/06/13/watch-cn-live-doctors-orders-dont-extradite-assange/ https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/06/watch-courage-in-public-life/ https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/05/assanges-very-life-is-at-stake/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBkQtXDN4_s

Awards Gary Webb Freedom of the Press Award (Consortium News) 2026 for Courage in Defending Press Freedom and Lifetime Achievement in Journalism https://consortiumnews.com/2026/06/15/mary-kostakidis-wins-cns-gary-webb-award/ Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism 2026 University of Sydney, Community Achievement 2012 Monash University, Professor John O. Miller Distinguished Achievement Medal, 1999 University of Salonika, first post graduate scholarship awarded to an Australian student 1977 University of NSW, Speech Competition, First Prize Qantas Round the World Trip, 1972