Court finds journalist unfairly fired over Gaza post

A journalist won his case against Australia’s national publisher, and by the court decision, he was unjustly dismissed for a social media mission for the war in Gaza.

Antoinette Lattouf, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), political views, race and lobbying of pro -Israeli groups after lobbying in December 2023 as a filling radio server, he said.

Hours before being dismissed, Lattouf shared a task from the Human Rights Monitoring Organization (HRW), which blames Israel’s war crimes rejected by Israel.

ABC argued that his mission violated the editorial policy, but after apologizing to Lattouf after the power, he said that he had “disappointed our staff and viewers”.

On Wednesday, Justice Darryl Rangiah found that ABC dismissed Lattouf, including his views on the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. He rejected the allegations that the server, the Lebanese heritage, was fired because of the race.

He was damaged by a damage of $ 70,000 (£ 33,400, 45,400 dollars), but Justice Rangiah said he would have discussed more than both sides.

Speaking outside the court Lattouf, “punished for my political opinion,” he said.

His dismissal triggered a wave of public anger and created turmoil for the public broadcaster – asked questions about his independence and revived concerns about how he supported the culturally various ones.

Lattouf has contributed regularly to the Australian media for years, but he made a name for himself as an activist in racism, media and mental health.

ABC objected to being fired, because they paid the contract exactly and said that it was removed to protect the reputation of the publisher, not as punishment of their duties.

Justice Rangah, while opening his statements, said the Israeli-Gaza War has become the “most covered, controversial and controversial news story in the world”.

The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack on Hamas on 7 October 2023 against Southern Israel, and about 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were hostage.

According to the Ministry of Health operated by Hamas in the region, at least 55,706 people have been killed in Gaza, including more than 15,000 children since then.

During the case, ABC found that Lattouf had been instructed to publish nothing about the conflict, but Justice Rangah was suggested that Lattouf was not “direction” instead of “direction”.

Authorized, the top -level ABC executives from the beginning of the employment that caused astonishment of an open “pro -Israeli lobbyists Lattouf’un a campaign to remove the air,” he said.

Justice Rangah, when Israel used hunger as a means of war, when he re -shared HRW Post, a claim that the country rejected – “he had to be controversial,” he said.

He described his decision as “unusual and thoughtless” of his employer, and turned his bosses into “astonishment” “what can be described as a panic state”.

“It was decided that Lattouf will be removed from the air during the hour,” he said.

Former ABC Chief Content Responsible Chris Oliver -Taylor said that Lattouf could violate some policies or guides – but he wanted to reduce the expected complaint and criticism “.

And thus, shortly after finishing his third morning as a server, Lattouf was told to collect and separate his belongings. The judge said that the allegedly violated policies were not identified or did not give himself the opportunity to defend himself.

The decision to remove him from the air waves was immediately leaked to the media, he says he left Lattouf’s reputation in Tatters.

Last year he took his case to the Australia’s Fair Labor Commission and to the Federal Court after a win there.

There, Lattouf’s team argued that he was influenced by external pressure on ABC’s appointment.

The court heard that ABC’s former president Ita Butrose and David Anderson, the former direction of managing, conveyed a few e-mails to Oliver-Taylor who complained about Lattouf.

Justice Rangah said that the decision to expel Lattouf was alone, but Anderson’s opinion affected him.

The new ABC General Manager Hugh Marx said that the issue is “not handled in line with our values ​​and expectations”.

“[It] It caused ABC’s concerns about its independence and integrity, which is critical for great confidence in public places in the United States. “

Following the decision, he said that there was a lot to be taken into consideration, and that the company’s social media guidelines have already been reviewed and changed.

Ms. Lattouf, who is surrounded by supporters outside the court, said, “Intentionally starving and killing is a war crime.”

“Today, the Court, to share the facts about these war crimes, to punish someone to share it is illegal.”

During the war, Israel imposed serious restrictions that helped food and shipments to Gaza during the war and prevented them from March to May this year.

A panel of the International Criminal Court judges decided that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was “reasonable reasons” to believe that “criminal responsibility” to use “hunger as a war method.

However, Israel refused to use hunger as a means of war, and Netanyahu’s claims called “false and absurd accusations”.

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull.