ABC to pay $70k for firing fill-in host over Gaza post
The ABC will pay former radio host Antoinette Lattouf $70,000 in damages for her unlawful dismissal, after she was taken off air over a post on the conflict in Gaza.
Lattouf was hired for a week-long stint on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program before Christmas 2023.
She was let go after sharing a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
The 41-year-old took her unlawful termination case to the Federal Court and Justice Darryl Rangiah handed down his judgment in a courtroom full of her supporters on Wednesday.
The judge ordered the ABC to pay Lattouf $70,000 in compensation. A potential pecuniary penalty will be determined at a later hearing.
He did not order any penalties against the national broadcaster, as Lattouf had sought.
At a hearing in February, she claimed she was fired from the job because of her race and political opinion after publicly commenting on the plight of Palestinians during the ongoing conflict with Israel
Rangiah heard Lattouf was let go 48 hours into a campaign by a pro-Israeli group that sent a barrage of complaints to ABC executives, including then-chair Ita Buttrose.
The public broadcaster was accused of taking a partisan view despite claiming to be an impartial news source.
However, the ABC denied this.
It claimed Lattouf was taken off the air because she failed to follow a direction not to post about Israel or the war in Gaza during her five-day shift.
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She rejected this, saying her direct supervisor, Elizabeth Green, agreed she could post facts from reputable sources.
As well as Buttrose, Lattouf also targeted the ABC’s former content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor and former managing director David Anderson as being responsible for the allegedly unlawful termination.
She blamed the broadcaster for making her sacking public after The Australian published an article before she had returned home the day she was fired.
ABC executives blamed head of capital city networks Steve Ahern for putting the organisation in an “unacceptable position” by failing to assess Lattouf’s history before hiring her, the court previously was told.
