The ABC's Antoinette Lattouf ‘issue’

Deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime.
Today, the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal.

~ Antoinette Lattouf

Sometimes the outcome of an unlawful dismissal case goes beyond justice for an individual employee. Sometimes there are profound ramifications for democratic freedoms, societal power imbalances and, in the case of Lattouf v ABC, fundamental human rights.

Yesterday (Wednesday, 25 June), Justice Rangiah found the public broadcaster had contravened the Fair Work Act when it sacked journalist Antoinette Lattouf for reasons ‘including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza’.

Rangiah determined that holding or expressing a political opinion is not a valid reason for terminating someone’s employment.

Rangiah said:

"...The protection for employees [under the Fair Work Act] against termination of employment for reasons including 'political opinion' encompasses not only the holding of a political opinion but also the expression of a political opinion."

When Lattouf addressed the media outside the Federal Court after the finding, it was clear this case had always been about more than her unfair dismissal.

Lattouf said:

In December 2023, I shared a Human Rights Watch post [which] found that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.

It is now June 2025 and Palestinian children are still being starved. We see their images every day. Emaciated. Skeletal. Scavenging through the rubble for scraps. This unspeakable suffering is not accidental, it is engineered.

Lattouf continued:

Deliberately starving and killing children is a war crime.

Today, the court has found that punishing someone for sharing facts about these war crimes is also illegal.

It takes guts to sue an employer. It takes considerable guts when that employer is the government-owned public broadcaster. But the fact Lattouf chose to focus on the suffering in Gaza after the court ruling in her favour is bold indeed.

The Lattouf trial: A question of bias at the ABC

Democratic freedoms, employee rights and public trust in the national broadcaster are all on trial in 'Antoinette Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation' trial.

This case exposes the extent of systemic bias and attempts by the powerful to control public discourse within our Fourth Estate, and it highlights the parlous state of our democratic freedoms. And with regard to the national broadcaster, it has indicated an unwillingness to fairly report the facts and a tendency to cave to external pressures, calling into question whether the ABC can be trusted as a truth-teller at all.

This unlawful dismissal is not the only case of public institutions and other organisations buckling under the pressure and jumping to rid themselves of connections that may display a pro-Palestinian stance, lest they be labelled "antisemitic".

A few recent examples include:

Melbourne University's expulsion of two pro-Palestine student activists and suspension of two others;
Creative Australia’s dumping of artist Khaled Sabsabi;
the cancelling of pianist Jayson Gillham by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra;
SEN's dismissal of cricket commentator Peter Lalor; and
the attempted silencing of journalist Mary Kostakidis by the Zionist Federation.

The facts are that the UN Special Committee has declared Israel’s atrocities in Gaza violations of international law, consistent with genocide.

People have a right to be informed of these facts. Students have a right to protest. Journalists have a responsibility to report the facts. And we must all protect our fundamental democratic right to freedom of information.

Certainly, we should trust our public broadcaster to inform us of the facts and report accurately without bowing to outside pressure.

Instead, when the ABC received complaints from lobby group, Lawyers for Israel, then managing director David Anderson personally reviewed Ms Lattouf's social media accounts regarding the situation in Gaza and sent text messages to outgoing chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, including the following:

‘I think we have an Antoinette issue.’

Lattouf was unceremoniously dismissed shortly after.

On Wednesday, Justice Rangiah found that ABC chief content officer Oliver-Taylor’s dismissal of Lattouf was influenced by:

“...an orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists to have Ms Lattouf taken off air... [which] caused great consternation amongst the senior management of the ABC.”

He ordered the broadcaster to pay Lattouf damages of $70,000 and said the ABC could face further pecuniary penalties, which will be the subject of a future hearing.

So far, the ABC’s legal fees have exceeded $1.1 million.

Interestingly, as director of advocacy at RASARA Saxon Mullins posted on social media:

'...the ABC dragged this out and defended their disgraceful sacking of Antoinette Lattouf but were happy to settle with Bruce Lehrmann and pay him $150,000 instead of defending the truth.'

Addressing the media outside the Federal Court yesterday, Lattouf’s lawyer, Josh Bornstein, paused to allow repeated protest calls from the crowd:

"Break the siege! Let Gaza live!”

Bornstein said:

"Organisations like the ABC that fold in the face of bad faith complaints about the Israel-Gaza conflict ultimately end up facing perverse consequences or in perverse situations, and that's exactly what the ABC did."

How the Israel lobby tries to silence criticism of Israel

There’s a long history of the Zionist lobby pressuring and bullying critics of Israel and they’re now upping tactics in a time of mass slaughter in Gaza.

Bornstein added that after wrongfully dismissing Lattouf, the ABC chose to "double down", rejecting a settlement offer of $85,000 last July:

“The amount of money spent on a case it could’ve settled for $85,000 is self-evidently ludicrous, and has been in aid of nothing except to discredit the ABC.”

With regard to pecuniary penalties, Bornstein indicated:

"We will be seeking significant penalties because we're concerned to ensure that this never happens again. And the ABC's conduct since it ilegally sacked Antoinette Lattouf raises real concerns about whether this will happen again if similar bad faith actors make similar complaints about ABC journalists."

According to a Guardian report, as she realised the Federal Court had found in her favour:

Lattouf looked incredulous. She turned to her husband, sitting in the public gallery behind her, smiled and nodded. Then she turned to hug the two lawyers sitting beside her, bowed her head and sobbed.

Shouting at ABC to raise standards won't help

With the ABC's quality continually dropping, it's imperative to find a productive way to register our opinions rather than complaining to deaf ears.

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