Australia’s national broadcaster ordered to pay £73,000 to journalist unlawfully fired over Gaza post
Australia’s national broadcaster has been asked to pay A$150,000 (£73,435) to a presenter for unfairly firing her over a social media post on Gaza.
Radio host Antoninette Lattouf was unlawfully sacked by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from the air in December 2023 over her political views in efforts made by pro-Israel groups, a legal suit found earlier this year in the Australian Federal Court said.
Justice Darryl Rangiah on Wednesday pronounced the order and said Lattouf’s rights were “surrendered” by the national broadcaster for the interests of a lobby group.
The broadcaster has been penalised for breaching the Fair Work Act and the ABC’s enterprise agreement, the court noted.
Lattouf has been vocal as an activist on issues like racism, discrimination in media, and mental health and regularly reported in Australian media for years.
The incident took place when she was hired by the ABC Radio Sydney Morning’s show for a week-long role but was fired after three weeks after she shared a post on Israel weaponising starvation in its war against Gaza.
The radio host did not make any comment but shared a post from the Human Rights Watch which accused Israel of using starvation as a tool of war. The accusation has been backed by the International Criminal Court which says there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel has deployed starvation of millions in the war-battered region as a tactic.
Israel has denied the allegation.
According to the ABC during the trial, Lattouf breached the broadcaster’s editorial policy as she was instructed to not talk about the war on social media.
However, the Federal Court found out that the ABC had never given such an instruction to Lattouf regarding social media posts.
Justice Rangiah said that while the host’s Instagram story was “ill-advised”, she was fired with “no more than a suspicion” that she “may” have violated a policy or guideline and given no opportunity to defend herself.
Reporting on the judgment, the ABC said the court previously found that Lattouf had been given “advice”, and that it “would be best not to post anything controversial about Gaza, as opposed to a direction not to do so”.
It was unclear how Lattouf’s sacking was shared in the media.
There was a clear “orchestrated” campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists to have the radio host removed from the broadcast right from the outset of her employment, and she was sacrificed by ABC management in a bid to mitigate the criticism, Justice Rangiah said on Wednesday while delivering the judgment.
