Secret WhatsApp messages show co-ordinated campaign to oust Antoinette Lattouf from ABC
The ABC sacked broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf after a high-level and co-ordinated letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists that directly targeted the corporation’s chair, Ita Buttrose, and managing director David Anderson.
Dozens of leaked messages from a WhatsApp group called Lawyers for Israel show how members of the group repeatedly wrote to the ABC demanding Lattouf be sacked, and threatened legal action if she was not.
According to an unlawful termination claim Lattouf later filed, ABC managers told her the morning program had been well received by audiences. But on the third day of her contract, according to the claim, she was told she was sacked, with her boss, Elizabeth Green, saying the order had come from “above me”. The stated reason, according to Lattouf’s claim, was that she had reposted a Human Rights Watch report saying Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war.
Lattouf now alleges she was sacked illegally for her political opinions, as a result of racism and after a campaign by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. A key question in her unlawful termination case is likely to be whether the ABC acted due to external lobbying or because Lattouf had breached internal ABC policies.
Screenshots from the Lawyers for Israel WhatsApp group, which has 156 members, show a co-ordinated letter-writing campaign that became intense during the days Lattouf was on air. A stream of letters were sent on her second day, and on the third day – the day she was sacked – one of the group’s administrators, Sydney conveyancing lawyer Nicky Stein, sent a message at 6.54am entitled “Action of the day: call to action”.
This post urged group members to target Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and copy in the ABC ombudsman, the board and Anderson, adding: “It is important ABC hears not just from individuals in the community but specifically lawyers so they feel there is an actual legal threat.
“I have basically written to them and told them I expect a proper response, not a generic one, by [close of business] today or I would look to engage a senior counsel. I know there is probably no actionable offence against ABC but I didn’t say I would be taking one – just investigating one. I have said that they should be terminating her employment immediately.”
Stein’s letter to the ABC and the minister said: “Anything short of terminating [Lattouf’s] position would not be sufficient.”
At 9.51am that day, another group administrator, Lindy Blashki, wrote that “Ita Buttrose replied to 7 of our letters yesterday”. About 90 minutes later at 11.15am, Stein posted her response from Buttrose. Lattouf was sacked about 1.40pm that day.
Lattouf and her lawyer, Bornstein, both declined to comment on the leaked messages. An ABC spokesperson said the national broadcaster had “a transparent complaints process and responds accordingly, regardless of the source of the complaint”.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/secret-whatsapp-messages-show-co-ordinated-campaign-to-oust-antoinette-lattouf-from-abc-20240115-p5exdx.html