On December 3, 2019, the Otago Daily Times published a Garrick Tremain cartoon depicting two women leaving a travel agency. The cartoon was published in the context of a measles epidemic sweeping Samoa which had resulted in 62 deaths (52 of them babies and children) at the time the cartoon was published. Over the next few days the Media Council received over 130 complaints, most expressing their concern that such tragedy could be used for comic effect in a cartoon. Five representative complaints were considered by the Media Council under the fast-track procedure. It was dependent for the joke on a measles epidemic that had cost the lives of 52 babies and children and 10 adults.

Source: Otago Daily Times December 22, 2019 14:03 UTC