An Australian court ruled on Wednesday that the country’s main public broadcaster had illegally fired a journalist for reasons that included a social media post critical of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
The journalist, Antoinette Lattouf, had sued the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, saying it had taken her off the air in December 2023 for expressing a political opinion. The ABC removed her after she made an Instagram post highlighting a Human Rights Watch report that accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
Her dismissal touched off heated debates within the taxpayer-funded ABC, one of Australia’s most prominent news organizations, about how and by whom the war should be covered. The broadcaster maintained that Ms. Lattouf had violated its social media guidelines and that because she was a freelance contractor, filling in on a morning radio program, she was never fired.
But in the Federal Court of Australia’s ruling, Justice Darryl Rangiah wrote that expressing her political opinion was one reason ABC had fired Ms. Lattouf, which he called a violation of the country’s labor laws. He ordered the broadcaster to pay her 70,000 Australian dollars, about $45,500, in compensation. Further legal proceedings will determine whether the ABC will pay additional financial penalties.
Ms. Lattouf was already an outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza and a frequent contributor to the ABC when she was tapped as a fill-in host, less than three months after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, setting off the war. She was three days into a five-day stint when the ABC told her she would not be going on the air for the rest of her contract.
In her short time hosting the radio show “Sydney Mornings,” the ABC had received a barrage of complaints — which the judge described as an “orchestrated campaign” — urging it to take Ms. Lattouf off the air. They questioned her impartiality and accused her of being antisemitic, according to testimony in the case.
“The consternation of senior managers of the ABC turned into what can be described as a state of panic,” the judge wrote in his decision.
When Ms. Lattouf shared on Instagram a video report from Human Rights Watch, which other journalists at the ABC had already reported on, she was terminated without an explanation of what policies she had violated or an opportunity to defend herself, according to the ruling.
In a statement, Hugh Marks, the ABC’s managing director, acknowledged that it had made errors in its handling of the matter and apologized to Ms. Lattouf. He added that being “independent and impartial in our work” remained a fundamental obligation for the broadcaster and its employees.
Justice Rangiah said there was no evidence that Ms. Lattouf’s firing was related to her race or her national origin, as she had contended. She is Lebanese Australian.
Outside the court in Sydney on Wednesday, Ms. Lattouf said that the “unspeakable suffering” of children in Gaza was continuing, and that the judge’s ruling demonstrated that penalizing someone for speaking up about it was illegal. “I was punished for my political opinion,” she said.
Victoria Kim is the Australia correspondent for The New York Times, based in Sydney, covering Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific region.
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