Antoinette Lattouf hearing and the clash of the ABC giants: Ita Buttrose versus Laura Tingle
Two of the most powerful figures in the national broadcaster, chair Ita Buttrose and 7.30 chief political correspondent Laura Tingle, clashed over the firing of a casual radio host in 2023, Antoinette Lattouf, whose departure has become an example of the struggle among some media outlets to manage journalists with strong opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ms Tingle, a staff-elected member of the ABC board, emailed the then-chairwoman to raise concerns that Ms Lattouf had been sacked and that Ms Buttrose’s involvement might have been deliberately misrepresented by a senior ABC executive in a report about the departure.
“I have to register my deep concern over the public debate over Antoinette Latouff,” Ms Tingle said. “I made some inquiries yesterday and it is still not clear what led to her being removed and who made the decision.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Whether or not she breached the social media code, the fact that someone apparently senior briefed The Australian on it and (I suspect) verballed your actual role in any action taken on it, is almost as spectacular an error of judgement as any social media breach.”
The article referred to in the email said: “complaints over Lattouf’s appointment were raised with Ms Buttrose and the board, with sources close to ABC management saying the chairwoman was ‘furious’ with the decision to hire the anti-Israel broadcaster.”
The email is an example of the internal pressure placed on Ms Buttrose over the involuntarily departure of one of the most junior journalists in the ABC.
Asked in the Federal Court on Tuesday to explain the message, Ms Buttrose said: “It doesn’t matter what Laura says.”
The judge, Darryl Rangiah, cut off further questioning on the topic, ruling it was not relevant to whether Ms Latouff was treated unfairly.
‘Shocked’
Ms Latouff is suing the broadcaster over her departure a week before Christmas, 2023, alleging she was forced out three days into a five-day shift because of her race and political views — of Lebanese heritage, she is an open opponent of Israel in its war with Hamas.
Faced with aggressive questioning by Ms Latouff’s barrister, Philip Boncardo, Ms Buttrose denied she ordered ABC managers to fire the Sydney local radio host in response to a campaign by pro-Israeli activists.
“I didn’t wish her to be removed,” the veteran journalist, television host and media executive told the court.
“I didn’t put pressure on anybody. It’s a fantasy of your own imagination. I have nothing to do with her dismissal. I was shocked.”
Ms Latouff’s lawyers are trying to prove that Ms Buttrose was responsible for the departure under pressure from external activists.
The ABC says she was fired because she disobeyed a direction not to post articles or comments on social media about the war — while working at the national broadcaster she shared an article on Instagram that accused Israel of deliberately starving residents of Gaza.
Dismissed
Not long before she was hired by the ABC, Ms Latouff was one of several hundred journalists who signed a petition organised by the journalists’ union calling on media outlets to abandon reporting that gave equal weight to both sides of the conflict.
Other media outlets told staff they would not be allowed to cover the war if they signed the petition.
As people emailed Ms Buttrose with complaints, including an incorrect assertion that Ms Lattouf was a foreign correspondent covering the war, the then-ABC chairwoman personally responded and forwarded them on to executives at the national broadcaster.
After a lunch with managing director David Anderson on her last day of work for the year, he told her Ms Lattouf had been dismissed.
Ms Buttrose had previously suggested she be taken off air under the pretext she had COVID or a cold.
After receiving the news, Ms Buttrose emailed some of the people who had written to her with complaints and said: “You are probably no longer aware that Ms Lattouf no longer works at the ABC.”
“All I cared about was really were we being impartial and whether were not,” Ms Buttrose told the Federal Court in Sydney. “We’d upset a lot of people. She wasn’t presenting an impartial point of view, that’s what I perceived.”
Asked about her posts in court last week, Ms Lattouf said: “I don’t think facts are controversial.”
The hearing will continue on Wednesday.
