Lawyers for the ABC have opened their case in the unlawful termination lawsuit brought by journalist Antoinette Lattouf, who was taken off air partway through a casual radio presenting contract in 2023. They told the Federal Court that ABC executives were focused on managing risks to the broadcaster’s impartiality obligations and had no antipathy toward the journalist’s opinions on the Israel-Gaza war.
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00:00Antoinette Latouf was taken off air in December 2023 when there were still two days left on
00:07a five-day contract presenting a morning radio program on the ABC in Sydney.
00:13Now that came after she shared on Instagram a post from Human Rights Watch which said
00:17starvation was being used as a tool of war in Gaza.
00:21Her legal team is alleging this was an unlawful termination due to her political opinions
00:27and or her race.
00:29Now already the court has heard that at the beginning of her time on radio, the ABC started
00:34receiving complaints from pro-Israeli lobbyists about her presence on air.
00:39And those complaints were sent to senior figures including former chair Artur Batros and managing
00:44director David Anderson.
00:46But today Ian Neal SC, counsel for the ABC, said those complaints have no statutory significance
00:52to the question for the court to decide in this case.
00:56In the ABC's opening statements, the barrister said Chris Oliver-Taylor, the chief content
01:01officer, was the decision maker.
01:04And even though the court has seen emails between people like Ms. Batros and Mr. Anderson
01:09where the response to Antoinette Latouf's prior social media activity was discussed,
01:15Mr. Neal said the evidence shows the focus of the senior executives was the perception
01:19of partiality the social media activity may have created.
01:24The senior executives, he said, were concerned and focused on the ABC's obligation of impartiality
01:31and the potential risks to it.
01:34Mr. Neal has spent most of today laying out four key phases of the discussions after Ms.
01:38Latouf's prior social media activity was discovered.
01:42He's taken the court through a series of emails from key figures which he says show that the
01:47approach early in the week was that there could be blowback if Ms. Latouf was removed
01:52from air and that she should see out the rest of the contract.
01:56Earlier in these hearings, Ms. Latouf has told the court that she remembers a conversation
02:01with her direct manager, Elizabeth Green, where her social media activity was discussed.
02:06And she's told the court that the advice was to keep a low profile on social media.
02:11She's insisted that it wasn't a directive to not post at all and that both of them mutually
02:17agreed that reputable sources would be okay.
02:20This is only day three of this hearing and among the witnesses we're still expected to
02:24hear from are the managing director, David Anderson.