Journalist Antoinette Lattouf has conceded some of her social media posts about the Israel-Gaza war “may be” considered controversial but she was only sharing “facts”, a court has heard.
The comments highlighted by the ABC’s counsel in court included that the state of Israel is guilty of apartheid, that Benjamin Netanyahu is the “most far-right extremist” leader in Israel’s history and that “Gaza is being annihilated hourly”.
Lattouf, who has sued the ABC in the federal court, claiming unfair dismissal, published the posts on her public Instagram account before she was hired for a casual presenting role by the ABC in December 2023.
Lattouf lost her job after she shared a Human Rights Watch post about the Israel-Gaza war while employed in the casual role. Before the Fair Work Commission last year, the ABC said it was a breach of editorial policy. The ABC has denied she was sacked because she was paid for the full five days of her contract.
The ABC has strongly denied Lattouf’s dismissal was the result of outside pressure on the broadcaster.
The names of the pro-Israel individuals who complained to the ABC that Lattouf had been employed were suppressed by Justice Darryl Rangiah to prevent what he said would be “vilification and harassment” due to the public nature of the trial.
The first witness in the week-long trial, Lattouf was cross-examined by the ABC’s barrister Ian Neil SC and will return to the court on Tuesday morning.
Neil asked: “Did you know that the reports and opinions of Human Rights Watch are controversial among those sections of the Australian community who do not share the view that the State of Israel is guilty of apartheid?” Lattouf said they “may” have been but she was only sharing “facts”, the court heard.
In the applicant’s opening statements barrister Oshie Fagir said former ABC chair Ita Buttrose had put pressure on ABC management to take Lattouf off air by claiming she had an illness.
Fagir said the ABC’s claim she was sacked because of a social media post about the war was not plausible because the broadcaster’s upper echelons had already made up their minds about her being unsuitable after a coordinated campaign by the “pro-Israel lobby”.
Fagir said the evidence will show his client was sacked because she held opinions critical of Israel’s treatment of Gaza.
Lattouf agreed that she was “someone who was sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people” and “someone who was openly critical of the conduct of the state of Israel”.
Previously unheard correspondence between ABC executives revealed in court that the chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, said the journalist should never have been hired , and he told his team we have an “Antoinette problem”.
The correspondence will show Buttrose said she was receiving multiple complaints about Lattouf hosting Mornings and she expressed her frustration she was still on air, the court heard.
“Has Antoinette been replaced? I’m over getting emails about her,” Buttrose wrote.
“Why can’t she come down with flu or Covid or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing.
“We’re copping criticism because she [Lattouf] wasn’t honest when she was appointed.”
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Fagir said the ABC’s outgoing managing director, David Anderson, had done his own research into her social media and told his executive that he allegedly found evidence that her “socials are full of antisemitic hatred”.
“Now there is no explanation in Mr Anderson’s evidence of what precisely he regarded to be antisemitic hatred, but that is what he said in a text message to Mr Oliver-Taylor,” Fagir said.
“He [Anderson] then went on to say: ‘Not sure we can have someone on air that suggests that Hamas should return to their ethnic cleansing in Gaza and move on to the West Bank.’ Now it’s very difficult to understand what on earth Mr Anderson was talking about, but the hostility is patent, and the reason for the hostility is patent.”
The court heard that the ABC’s acting editorial director, Simon Melkman, had told the broadcaster’s executives that Lattouf had not breached editorial guidelines early in the week of December 2023, when the journalist was a stand-in host.
The director’s advice was sought after the ABC received a large number of complaints about its decision to appoint her as a casual host.
Fagir told the court one of the ABC’s arguments was that Lattouf’s claim must fail because she “has not proven there is a Lebanese, Arab or Middle Eastern race”.
“Now this is a model litigant, an organisation that publicly suggests that it is confronting and treating seriously the concerns of its diverse workforce, and it comes to this court, and says that Ms Lattouf should fail because it has not been proven that there is such thing as a Lebanese race,” Fagir said.
Neil objected to the applicant raising the issue of race, saying it was not a discrimination case but a case about the reason for Lattouf’s termination.
Lattouf’s psychiatrist Dr Nigel Strauss has been called by the ABC to give evidence, and will be followed by Anderson.
Steve Ahern, who hired Lattouf for a casual role when he was acting head of capital city networks, will appear on Thursday after a full day of evidence from Oliver-Taylor.
