Journalist who upset ‘Jewish lobbyists’ allowed to pursue unlawful termination case

Journalist and presenter Antoinette Lattouf was sacked by the ABC when she was taken off-air part way through a radio presenting stint, the Fair Work Commission has found.

Lattouf, 40, lodged a claim for unlawful dismissal against the ABC after she was sent home on day three of a five-day assignment presenting at ABC Radio Sydney in December.

Her Fair Work Commission submission claims the ABC told her she breached the organisation’s social media policy for posting content from Human Rights Watch about the war in Gaza on her personal Instagram account.

The ABC’s position was that Lattouf’s employment was not actually terminated, because she was paid for the full five days.

In a decision published today, the Fair Work Commission has rejected that argument and found Lattouf’s employment was terminated by her managers during a meeting on 20 December.

The ruling paves the way for Lattouf to pursue an unlawful termination case which has been filed in the Federal Court.

According to her claim, Lattouf’s ABC manager called her on 18 December, informing her that “Jewish lobbyists were unhappy that she was on the air”.

Lattouf alleged the manager discussed her use of social media, but confirmed that sharing information from “a reputable NGO” or similar was “fine”.

She re-posted the Human Rights Watch video the following night, which was accompanied by her caption, “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war”.

– ABC