Journalist Antoinette Lattouf was awarded AU$70,000 and possibly more in damages after the public broadcaster wrongly dismissed her under Zionist lobby pressure for sharing a social media post critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, reports Joe Lauria.
Lattouf v. ABC ruling. Judge finds that Australia’s national broadcaster unlawfully sacked @antoinette_news because of her political opinions. First round of damages ($70K) were awarded today. More to come after penalties on the ABC are decided. pic.twitter.com/KOoeezw8VR
— Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) June 25, 2025
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
A judge in a federal court in Sydney, Australia has ruled against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for wrongly dismissing a radio presenter after she shared an instagram post from Human Rights Watch that accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon in Gaza.
Judge Darryl Rangiah awarded journalist Antoinette Lattouf AU$70,000 and possibly more in damages on Wednesday in a case that undermines an organized campaign in Australia, like in many countries today, that is attacking legitimate critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza as being anti-semitic.
Senior ABC executives had testified at trial that they had been flooded with complaints — even though none of the contested content had been discussed on air — and that pressure had mounted to get rid of the presenter, which they did.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers later revealed that the flood of complaints was the result of a coordinated campaign by pro-Israel lobby groups via WhatsApp. The campaign targeted the ABC’s chair and managing director to have Lattouf sacked. The Australian journalists union MEAA stood behind Lattouf, questioning the national broadcaster’s independence from outside influence.
Antoinette Lattouf arriving in federal court in Sydney on Wednesday morning. (Mary Kostakidis)
The judge’s decision on Lattouf’s wrongful dismissal suit was based on the question of whether she was terminated because of her political opinions. ABC argued that Lattouf, who had been hired for one week as a fill-in presenter, was not terminated, but rather had her work hours reduced to zero for the remaining two days of her five-day contract.
That decision to effectively fire her was taken after ABC executives determined that Lattouf held anti-semitic views, the judge told the court. The judge found that ABC violated the Fair Work Act by ending Lattouf’s employment because “she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.”
He said: “I reject [ABC executive Christopher] Oliver-Taylor’s evidence that his decision to terminate Lattouf had nothing to do with her political opinions.” Judge Rangiah rejected Latouff’s allegations of discrimination based on her ethnicity. She is of Lebanese origin.
The judge said pro-Israel lobbyists created an “orchestrated campaign” against Lattouff by writing to the ABC complaining that she had “expressed anti-Semitic views, lacked impartiality and was unsuitable to present any program for the ABC.”
Lattouf speaking to reporters outside court after her victory. (Cathy Vogan for CN)
“The complaints caused great consternation amongst the senior management of the ABC,” he said. But he found Latouff was given no direct order not to post controversial matter on social media but “was merely provided with advice that it would be best not to post anything controversial about the war.”
During her one-week stint at the ABC, Latouff simply shared the Human Rights Watch instagram post on Dec. 19, 2023, with the words “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war.”
Outside the court after the ruling Latouff told reporters that the court found that “punishing someone for sharing facts” about “war crimes” is not legal. “I was punished for my political opinion,” she said.
Her attorney, Josh Bornstein, told reporters:
“The court has decisively upheld her claim the ABC illegally dismissed her from her employment. The court has made important findings that in doing so it capitulated to a campaign of lobbying. 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.”
Bornstein said the ABC had refused to settle for AU$85,000 and instead spent AU$1.1 million of taxpayer money defending the case.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
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1.Will those who sacked her now be terminated? 2. Will Buttrose. resign? 3.When will theABC report the outcome of this case? 4. Do as I did.Go on the ABC site and ask these questions through their contact button
Good to learn there is at least one capable judge on the bench today! We’re learning there are even more – given the number of lawsuits taken to Court against our dear (USA) leader’s and henchmen’s wild destruction of governmental agencies actually serving the public. Where the citizen’s have – so far at least – won. Now, given the international bullying the USA does, what must happen to all those neoconservatives hiding here and there in the Deep State and their corporations, for the USA to begin obeying international rules and treaties? And act decently? How does decency grow sufficiently that psychopaths/sociopaths are put on the leash they deserve?
One may wonder how ABC managed to spend a million on a “simple labor case”, and how it delayed the resolution for more than a year. About that, the main employer tactic is refusal to disclose relevant communications, appeals when ordered to disclose etc. Kudos to the courts of Australia to cut it (no so) short and reach common sense conclusions (which should be normal, but all too often, is not).
Now a thoroughly defamed man won a mayoral primary in NYC, and avalanche of well organized slander increased yet more.
Good to read about the finding that paying attention to what HRW finds about human rights violation is “not controversial”.
The cynical, manipulation, co-option and weaponization of words (e.g., “semite” – originally a person of the Middle East speaking one of related languages) no more confers onto “pro-semites” the permission to genocidally exterminate a people than does the world’s recognition & condemnation of the WWII Holocaust and the genuine sorrow shown for its victims living and dead.
How much longer are zionists going to be allowed to extort anyone/anywhere at will??? I am ANTI ZIONIST…but this does NOT make me anti semite.
I’m wondering when people will start counter-attacking the lobbies. Legal cases brought against them for conspiracy to defame, ending with restitution to be paid
Once in awhile…those who stand up for justice win.
Hey! If you’re against starving infants and shooting toddlers in the skull, you’re an anti-Semite bub! Got it?!
Nice outcome! She is awesome.
I am pretty sure more than 90% of the world among those who knows a bit of whats going on are against murderers of children, women and elderly… are against cowards who bomb hospitals and shelters and those innocents tricked by food aid and killed waiting in line for crumbs.
Even those who dont know much are siding with the oppressed and innocents and the world this way change and maybe with hope we will end it up stronger and with more Freedom and Peace.