Antoinette Lattouf’s unfair dismissal case against the ABC will resume in court for a second day on Tuesday morning.
Antoinette Lattouf’s unfair dismissal case against the ABC will resume in court for a second day on Tuesday morning.
Good morning, I’m Calum Jaspan, and welcome to today’s live blog of Lattouf v the ABC in the Federal Court.
If you’re just catching up, freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf has taken the ABC to court alleging unfair dismissal after she was sacked in late 2023, three days into a five-day contract hosting a local radio show in Sydney.
The details of this case have been explosive from start to finish. Lattouf, who had a history of posting content relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict online before her employment, is alleging she was sacked in part for expressing political opinion.
The ABC has denied Lattouf was sacked, as she was paid for the full five days, and has also denied its most senior executives were influenced by pro-Israel lobbyists in their decision-making. Most of the ABC’s top executives – including chair Ita Buttrose, managing director David Anderson and content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor – have either left the national broadcaster or are on their way out.
Neil focuses on two conversations between ABC Radio Sydney content director Elizabeth Green and Lattouf on December 18 and 19, 2023 – the first two days of her five-day contract.
In the first meeting, the pair discussed the ABC’s expectations of her social media activity during that week, while she was presenting the Sydney Mornings show.
The following day, Lattouf says, Green told Lattouf there had been a “flood of complaints” from pro-Israel lobbyists about her presence on air, but Green said she had done nothing wrong.
“Maybe keep a low profile on Twitter and maybe don’t post while you’re with us,” Lattouf says Green told her, which she pushed back against.
The pair agreed she would stick to the facts, and Green agreed posting from reputable sources was “fine”, Lattouf says.
“Being sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, and sharing the injustices committed by Israel are not at odds with being a journalist or good journalism,” wrote former ABC federal politics reporter Nour Haydar on X this morning.
Haydar resigned a year ago over the public broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.
“Our industry often awards/elevates journalists who speak unashamedly on human rights & social justice issues,” her post continued.
Haydar, who now works for Guardian Australia, left the ABC after seven years, telling this masthead at the time that commitment to diversity in the media “cannot be skin deep”.
“Culturally diverse staff should be respected and supported even when they challenge the status quo,” Haydar said in early 2024.
Day two will start at 10.15am today, and can be live-streamed on the Federal Court of Australia’s YouTube channel.
First up, Lattouf will be back in the witness box, before her Psychiatrist Dr Nigel Strauss will be cross-examined for about an hour.
After Ian Neil, SC has made the ABC’s opening statement, outgoing ABC chair David Anderson will appear and be cross-examined for the rest of the afternoon.
Anderson, who undertook his own “extraordinary audit” of Lattouf’s social media after receiving complaints, determined her accounts were “full of antisemitic hatred”, the court was told.
He announced his resignation from the ABC’s top job in August, and in December, new chair Kim Williams appointed former Nine chief Hugh Marks as his successor, joining next month.
The first day of proceedings was capped off by several hours of tetchy exchanges between Lattouf and Ian Neil, SC, the ABC’s barrister, as he cross-examined the former ABC broadcaster, and was at one point told by Justice Darryl Rangiah not to interrupt her responses to his questions.
The pair went around in circles as the ABC silk pushed for Lattouf to admit some of her social media activity could be considered, by some, as “controversial”. Lattouf was steadfast that facts are not controversial, yet conceded eventually some “may be” controversial – but that they were facts.
But the biggest bombshell of the day was correspondence shared by Lattouf’s barrister Oshie Fagir, quoting from texts and emails between Buttrose, Anderson and Oliver-Taylor, revealing the former chair had heavily pushed for Lattouf to be taken off-air after she was subject to a “co-ordinated campaign” of complaints by the “pro-Israel lobby”.
“I have a whole clutch of complaints. Can’t she come down with flu, or COVID or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing,” the court was told Buttrose had said in an email to Anderson.
Catch up on the full story of the first day of evidence here.
Good morning, I’m Calum Jaspan, and welcome to today’s live blog of Lattouf v the ABC in the Federal Court.
If you’re just catching up, freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf has taken the ABC to court alleging unfair dismissal after she was sacked in late 2023, three days into a five-day contract hosting a local radio show in Sydney.
The details of this case have been explosive from start to finish. Lattouf, who had a history of posting content relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict online before her employment, is alleging she was sacked in part for expressing political opinion.
The ABC has denied Lattouf was sacked, as she was paid for the full five days, and has also denied its most senior executives were influenced by pro-Israel lobbyists in their decision-making. Most of the ABC’s top executives – including chair Ita Buttrose, managing director David Anderson and content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor – have either left the national broadcaster or are on their way out.