Antoinette Lattouf says she doesn’t care if people found the “facts” she posted to social media were controversial, in a day of blistering evidence in the Federal Court where it emerged that former ABC chair Ita Buttrose had pushed for the broadcaster to be taken off-air following complaints about her.
Lattouf, who has sued the ABC for unlawful termination, was cross-examined about whether material she had shared on social media could be considered controversial by some sections of the public, including one claim that “Gaza was being annihilated hourly” and another that said, “HRW [Human Rights Watch] reporting starvation as a tool of war”.
“Facts are never controversial. I don’t share facts worrying if somebody might think it’s controversial,” she said in response to questioning from ABC barrister Ian Neil, SC.
Antoinette Lattouf arrives at the Federal Court on Monday ahead of her unlawful dismissal case.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Lattouf’s lawyers argued members of a lobby group had conducted a “spectacularly successful campaign” to have her taken off-air, including a “barrage of complaints” sent to ABC managing director David Anderson and Buttrose.
Buttrose wrote in emails with Anderson: “I have a whole clutch of complaints. Can’t she come down with flu, or COVID or a stomach upset? We owe her nothing,” the court was told.
The correspondence was revealed in the opening statements made by Lattouf’s barrister, Oshie Fagir, as the high-profile case began in front of a packed courtroom on Monday morning, where Lattouf is arguing she was unlawfully terminated three days into a five-day contract as a fill-in presenter on ABC Radio Sydney in late 2023. Central to the case are social media posts she made before and during her time at the ABC.
“We’re copping criticism because she [Lattouf] wasn’t honest when she was appointed,” Buttrose had said, according to Fagir.
Lattouf was cross-examined for several hours on Monday afternoon, and was pushed to acknowledge some of her online posts might be considered “controversial” by sections of the public, and to agree that some people might find Human Rights Watch a non-impartial, or even controversial organisation.
Earlier in the day, the court heard Anderson had told ABC content chief Chris Oliver-Taylor, “I think we have an Antoinette issue”, after receiving complaints from what Fagir described as pro-Israel lobbyists, and that her social media accounts were “full of antisemitic hatred”.
