Danielle Gusmaroli is now one of the most discussed figures in Australian journalism, although probably not due to the reasons most reporters like to be known. Although her personal endeavour has been investigative reporting on courts, crime, and anti-Semitism, it is a contentious event at a cafe in Sydney in early 2025 that made her name national and started the immediate discourse surrounding the ethics of journalism, media responsibility, and the limits of responsible journalism.
Background and Career Journey
Since July 2016, Gusmaroli has been a senior reporter at The Daily Telegraph, one of Australia’s most read newspaper. Her areas of specialisation are courts, crime, and national news, specifically legislation on hate crimes, anti-Semitism, and cultural diplomacy. Her investigative style has gained her a reputation for covering problematic topics that cut across law enforcement, community relations, and social justice.
Gusmaroli broadened her career beyond Australia when she was made News Corp Australia London and European Correspondent in August 2022, moving out of Sydney to take on the responsibility of reporting on European events, at the same time retaining her senior reporter position. This two-fold role is indicative of the importance of her contribution in the Australian operations in News Corp that involve The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and news.com.au.
Notable Investigative Work
Prior to the Cairo Takeaway episode, Gusmaroli mainly wrote about anti-Semitic cases in Sydney and the whole of Australia. She covered many hate crimes against Jewish communities, such as:
Swastika Vandalism Coverage: Gusmaroli reported on an increase in anti-Semitic vandalism in Sydney, with particular attention to cases in the eastern suburbs, like a daubed swastika on a car. Her articles were a mixture of victim testimonials and crime statistics, showing the emotional impact on the residents of the Jewish community, and eliciting the local councils to provide some funds to the surveillance system and community educational programmes.
Anti-Israel Merchandise Investigation: She created investigative reporting on the sale of anti-Israel merchandise at a Melbourne mosque, whose proceeds went to Indigenous Australian and Palestinian charities. The coverage was a synthesis of undercover interviews with a legal commentary, which resulted in arguments in the Australian Parliament between free speech and incitement to violence.
Jewish Family Home Defacement: Her story about the house of a former president of the Jewish Board of Deputies being covered with swastikas and misspelt German words brought her into the limelight, and people demanded stricter action by the police in curbing anti-Semitism.
The Cairo Takeaway Controversy
In February 2025, Gusmaroli had a drastically controversial moment in her career when she was involved in what many critics have described as a media entrapment operation at the Egyptian cuisine restaurant Cairo Takeaway in Newtown, Sydney.
What Happened
On February 11, 2025, an Israeli-Australian former IDF soldier, Ofir Birenbaum, an advocate of pro-Israel, entered Cairo Takeaway with a Star of David cap and video-record glasses. Once he ordered hibiscus tea,he allegedly made provocative comments to the employees about his Jewish identity. Gusmaroli, a photographer and a videographer, were standing outside the restaurant to record the interaction.
Internal secrets of The Daily Telegraph showed that the operation had the working title of “UNDERCOVERJEW”, and the mandate to go on read: “Undercover Jewish man Ofir Birenbaum finds out how it feels to be a Jew in Sydney. Will secretly film with his video glasses”. This was planned to go to various Sydney suburbs, such as Newtown, Blacktown, Bankstown and Arncliffe and record responses to “this Jewish man”.
The Fallout
The owner and employees of the restaurant soon realised the arrangement. Hesham El Masry, a restaurant owner who is a supporter of Palestine, reported the incident to the authorities, but the police found that no crime had been committed. The neighbouring shopkeepers and the residents came out in support of the restaurant, and told the Telegraph team to move on, accusing them of being involved in “divisive journalism”.
Media Response: The media greatly covered the incident by different media outlets in Australia, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Media Watch, and independent publications. Ben English, editor of The Daily Telegraph, released a statement that they “could have done more to manage the approach that they took”.
Public Backlash: A Change.org petition to cancel Gusmaroli’s visa surfaced, which referred to her as a “British national who had carried out stunt tactics to cause trouble, create conflict and division in the community”. The petition charged her with following the “despicable British tabloid strategies” and breaching the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics, which demands that journalists respect the rights of people and not to emphasise ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, which is unnecessary.
Professional Consequences: The Daily Telegraph reported that it acted after the event, not on the perpetrators of the operation, but in diligently hounding down the person who had leaked internal planning documents to the press.
Danielle Gusmaroli and Australian Journalism Standards
The Cairo Takeaway Case has also become a journalistic ethics case study, especially in terms of:
Manipulated News: Critics say that the operation was meant to be news that was made, not reported, which is unethical.
Community Relations: The incident happened at a time when there were elevated tensions between Jewish and Arab people in Australia in the Gaza conflict, as such provocation was especially harmful to the social cohesion.
Media Accountability: The broad disapproval of other journalists and media houses was put under the spotlight with regard to the lowering standards of Australian tabloid journalism.
Context: Australia’s Best Investigative Journalists
In order to see how Gusmaroli fits the Australian journalism, it is best to compare her work to the most praised investigative reporters in the country:
Nick McKenzie is the all-time winner of Walkley Awards (the best journalism award in Australia) with twenty awards and is a five-time Journalist of the Year. His inquiries have prompted Royal Commissions and parliamentary inquiries into corruption, organised crime and war crimes.
Kate McClymont, the chief investigative reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, has taken home ten Walkley Awards in the exposure of political corruption, including former politician Eddie Obeid and financial fraudster Melissa Caddick.
In 2018, Hedley Thomas, national chief correspondent of The Australian, won his second Gold Walkley award in the true-crime podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, that resulted in the prosecution and subsequent conviction of Chris Dawson, forty years after he murdered his wife.
In 2016, the first Gold Kennedy Award was won by Adele Ferguson, who made investigations into slave labour in 7-Eleven and a lack of insurance being paid by the Commonwealth Bank to sick policyholders.
These are the journalists of the gold standard of the Australian investigative reporting,who report on genuine wrongdoing that serves the public interest and upholds ethical standards. The Cairo Takeaway affair is in sharp contrast to this tradition.
What Is Danielle Gusmaroli Known For Today?
Since the February 2025 scandal, Gusmaroli has been largely recognised due to the Cairo Takeaway incident and not her previous investigative journalism. The episode has gained symbolic status of general concerns regarding:
- Poor journalism practices of tabloid media.
- The impact of the editorial style of News Corp on the Australian popular discourse.
- The conflict between free speech and good journalism.
- The politics of false investigative reporting.
Although Gusmaroli remains in the same position of European Correspondent of News Corp Australia in London, the Cairo Takeaway incident has essentially changed the scope of her professional reputation and led to a national debate concerning what is deemed as an acceptable journalistic practice in modern Australia.
The Broader Implications
The story of Gusmaroli creates some significant concerns for Australian journalism. The anti-Semitic events are actually spreading throughout Australia, as there are at least 166 antisemitic crimes reported to the federal police, as of January 2025, the necessity for proper, ethical media coverage of community tensions takes precedence. Any operation that appears to manufacture rather than investigate these tensions, threatens to erode the trustworthiness of the reporting of hate crimes and only adds to community relations that are already strained.
To both the journalists and the media consumers, the Gusmaroli case is a wake-up call that journalistic credibility is difficult to come by, and it is easily lost, and that the means of collecting the news are as significant as the news.
