Journalist Antoinette Lattouf awarded $70,000 in compensation after winning unfair dismissal case against the ABC
Ms Lattouf had claimed she was unlawfully dismissed by the ABC in December 2023 after she re-shared an Instagram post about the war in Gaza, which accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war.
The journalist, who was hired as a fill-in host on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program at the time, was taken off air three days into her five-day contract.
The ABC denied Ms Lattouf was unfairly terminated.
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Courier-Mail
2 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
‘Very nasty': ABC personality's fiery fence dispute with neighbour sparks ‘cover up' accusation
Don't miss out on the headlines from TV. Followed categories will be added to My News. A fiery dispute over a fence between ABC personality Myf Warhurst and her neighbour has sparked accusations of a 'cover up' by the public broadcaster. Karla Martinez, a prize-winning Melbourne architect, was initially charged with assaulting Warhurst's then partner, Brian Steendyk, in an explosive row in late December 2022 captured on police bodycam and mobile phone footage. You can watch some of it in the video player above. The charges were later dropped, but Ms Martinez has now accused the ABC of running a 'one-sided hit job' with an article on its website and social media last May about the incident, without disclosing that the Spicks and Specks presenter was a central player in the bitter feud, The Australian reports. The mother-of-three claims the ABC breached its editorial guidelines and displayed flagrant bias after picturing and naming her in the article, while not naming Warhurst and her then boyfriend. Cesar Funez and Karla Martinez are interviewed by police. Picture: The Australian It stated only that Ms Martinez has been accused of 'unlawfully assaulting a neighbour, who lives with an ABC contractor'. The article has since been removed from the ABC's website, and the broadcaster has not responded to questions about the source of the story and the reasons it was eventually taken down. 'That article destroyed my job, life, career and harmed my family while protecting the source of the story,' Ms Martinez told The Australian. 'It was essentially about a civil dispute which escalated to numerous criminal charges against me — which have all been struck out by the courts. The ABC doesn't even name Myf or her partner in the story — why not? Because they're trying to protect their own. My lawyers have repeatedly asked the ABC to reveal the source of the story but they are refusing to say. They're trying to cover it up.' Brian Steendyk and Myf Warhurst. Picture: The Australian Warhurst vehemently denied playing any role in the ABC story. Her agent told The Australian she was unaware of the May 2024 article's existence 'until a friend brought it to her attention after it was published' and that she had 'no involvement in its publication and has wished at all times for this matter to remain private'. The wild dispute at their North Warrandyte home in Melbourne's outskirts broke out in late December 2022, when Mr Steendyk started tearing down a 26-metre stretch of disputed fence using a 'chainsaw and grinder'. Tensions between the neighbours had been brewing over a concrete wall Ms Martinez intended to construct along the property line. Myf Warhurst and Tony Armstrong. Picture: ABC Ms Martinez told The Australian 'everything started out friendly enough' when Warhurst moved into the home in early 2022, but 'all hell broke loose as soon as they found out we were going to start constructing a concrete wall along the property line'. 'She hated it — the wall, design, everything,' she said. She alleged the couple decided to take matters into their own hands on December 28, 2022, and began ripping down the contested section of the fence. 'So I go out and started screaming and it all becomes very nasty, and I asked my kids to call triple-0 and get the police to come,' Ms Martinez said. Warhurst also called triple-0, telling police Mr Steendyk had been 'hit on the head with a pipe' by Ms Martinez 'as he was trying to cut down the fence'. Officers from Eltham police station arrived and tried to defuse the situation. Karla Martinez says the ABC article 'destroyed' her life. Picture: Supplied The blow-up led to years of back-and-forth legal salvos between the neighbours, including competing intervention orders. The ABC's article was published as Ms Martinez was waiting to face court on the yet-to-be-dismissed assault charge, as well as seven 'criminal charges' over the construction of the wall, which carried a $200,000 fine. Ms Martinez said all those charges had since been dropped. She sent an email to ABC chairman Kim Williams accusing the broadcaster of deliberately 'humiliating and defaming me through malicious content which Myf [allegedly] orchestrated' and demanding the presenter be stood down. A lawyer for the ABC responded, telling Ms Martinez her 'assumptions and assertions … are inaccurate', according to The Australian. 'On this basis, the ABC does not agree to comply with your request,' he wrote. 'In any event, we note (without admission) the article in question has been removed from websites controlled by the ABC.' The ABC did not comment on potential legal action when contacted by but a spokesperson said, 'The ABC is assured it acted appropriately in this matter.' 'Myf Warhurst had no involvement in publishing the story,' they added. 'Myf is highly valued by the ABC.' Originally published as 'Very nasty': ABC personality's fiery fence dispute with neighbour sparks 'cover up' accusation
Perth Now
3 hours ago
- Perth Now
New blow for hate speech preacher
A Muslim preacher who made 'fundamentally racist' and 'anti-Semitic' remarks in a series of speeches will be prevented from any attempt to 'bury' an admission he broke the law. Wissam Haddad was found to have breached the racial discrimination act following a four-day hearing in the Federal Court last month over a series of speeches he gave in November 2023, in which he described Jewish people as 'vile', 'treacherous', 'mischievous' and 'wicked and scheming'. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry's (ECAJ) co-chief executive Peter Wertheim AM and deputy president Robert Goot AO SC to launched court action against Mr Haddad over the speeches, arguing they constituted unlawful discrimination; Mr Haddad claimed he was referring to Islamic scripture in most cases. Wissam Haddad was found in breach of the racial discrimination act. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia The proceedings also extended to the Al Madina Dawah Centre (AMDC) for posting videos of the speeches online via Facebook and video-sharing platform Rumble. Justice Angus Stewart found Mr Haddad and AMDC breached the racial discrimination act in delivering and publishing the speeches online, which he said included 'fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic' age-old tropes against Jewish people which were reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Jewish people in Australia. More than two weeks following the judgment, Justice Stewart has now moved to prevent corrective notices from being 'deliberately buried' on Mr Haddad's and AMDC's social media pages. Mr Haddad was ordered to post a corrective notice to Instagram and Soundcloud for 30 days, which is required to be given prominence by being 'pinned' to the top of his Instagram profile and added as a story highlight. Wissam Haddad fronted a four-day hearing in the Federal Court in June. Christian Gilles / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia The notices include words expressing Mr Haddad and AMDC breached the racial discrimination act and were required to remove the speeches and not to repeat or continue 'unlawful' behaviour. AMDC were similarly ordered to add the notice as a 'featured' post on Facebook, and a featured video on Rumble. 'In short, the 'pinning' and 'featuring' of the posts will prevent them from disappearing from view in a short period of time, and it will prevent them from being deliberately buried by way of successive further posts,' Justice Stewart said in his judgment. While Mr Haddad and AMDC accepted changes to the wording of the notices put forth by ECAJ, they argued the feature and pin tools on Instagram and Facebook were typically used for entrepreneurial and marketing purposes, and therefore would force them to 'advertise' and 'promote' the notice and go beyond what they considered an appropriate redress measure. However Justice Stewart was satisfied pinning and featuring posts on the platforms was 'not onerous', 'complicated' or 'time consuming', and doesn't require the payment of any fees. 'I am also not persuaded that to require the respondents to 'pin' and 'feature' the corrective notices would be unduly burdensome from the perspective of dominating or cluttering their relevant accounts,' Justice Stewart's judgment stated. 'Other posts will still be able to be made, and it is proposed that the notices are required to be published for only 30 days.' He noted the notice would be promoted to an extent, but said Mr Haddad and AMDC had 'promoted the unlawful lectures and it is not disproportionate to require them to promote the corrective notice'. He also rejected Mr Haddad and AMDC's arguments the lectures weren't 'directly' posted to Instagram and Facebook, finding the links posted on the platforms to those lectures facilitated 'easy access for anyone interested in seeing the lectures'. Executive Council of Australian Jewry members Robert Goot and Peter Wertheim leave Federal Court. NewsWire / Jeremy Piper Credit: News Corp Australia Executive Council of Jewry Deputy President Robert Goot. NewsWire / Nikki Short Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Wertheim welcomed the new order in a statement on Thursday afternoon. Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said: 'We see this as an essential part of counteracting the harm that was caused by their online promotion and reproduction of Haddad's anti-Semitic speeches,' Mr Wertheim said. In his judgment at the beginning of July, Justice Stewart discarded arguments by Mr Haddad and AMDC that the speeches in question were exempt under 18D of the racial discrimination act as they had a genuine purpose in the public interest, and in AMDC's case, that the speeches were a 'fair and accurate report' on a matter of public interest. They had also submitted the relevant sections of the racial discrimination act were beyond parliamentary powers due to the implied freedom of political communication, and additionally the freedom to exercise any religion as per the constitution, both of which Justice Stewart found to have failed. Both Mr Haddad and AMDC were ordered to remove the lectures from their social media and to take all reasonable steps to request any re-publishers also remove the speeches if they become aware of their redistribution. He moved to restrain Mr Haddad from discriminating against Jewish people in the future, barring him from causing words, sounds or images to be communicated anywhere 'otherwise than in private' which attribute characteristics to Jewish people that convey any of the disparaging imputations identified from the speeches. Mr Haddad and AMDC were also ordered to cover the costs of the Federal Court proceedings.
News.com.au
5 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Very nasty': ABC personality's fiery fence dispute with neighbour sparks ‘cover up' accusation
A fiery dispute over a fence between ABC personality Myf Warhurst and her neighbour has sparked accusations of a 'cover up' by the public broadcaster. Karla Martinez, a prize-winning Melbourne architect, was initially charged with assaulting Warhurst's then partner, Brian Steendyk, in an explosive row in late December 2022 captured on police bodycam and mobile phone footage. You can watch some of it in the video player above. The charges were later dropped, but Ms Martinez has now accused the ABC of running a 'one-sided hit job' with an article on its website and social media last May about the incident, without disclosing that the Spicks and Specks presenter was a central player in the bitter feud, The Australian reports. The mother-of-three claims the ABC breached its editorial guidelines and displayed flagrant bias after picturing and naming her in the article, while not naming Warhurst and her then boyfriend. It stated only that Ms Martinez has been accused of 'unlawfully assaulting a neighbour, who lives with an ABC contractor'. The article has since been removed from the ABC's website, and the broadcaster has not responded to questions about the source of the story and the reasons it was eventually taken down. 'That article destroyed my job, life, career and harmed my family while protecting the source of the story,' Ms Martinez told The Australian. 'It was essentially about a civil dispute which escalated to numerous criminal charges against me — which have all been struck out by the courts. The ABC doesn't even name Myf or her partner in the story — why not? Because they're trying to protect their own. My lawyers have repeatedly asked the ABC to reveal the source of the story but they are refusing to say. They're trying to cover it up.' Warhurst vehemently denied playing any role in the ABC story. Her agent told The Australian she was unaware of the May 2024 article's existence 'until a friend brought it to her attention after it was published' and that she had 'no involvement in its publication and has wished at all times for this matter to remain private'. The wild dispute at their North Warrandyte home in Melbourne's outskirts broke out in late December 2022, when Mr Steendyk started tearing down a 26-metre stretch of disputed fence using a 'chainsaw and grinder'. Tensions between the neighbours had been brewing over a concrete wall Ms Martinez intended to construct along the property line. Ms Martinez told The Australian 'everything started out friendly enough' when Warhurst moved into the home in early 2022, but 'all hell broke loose as soon as they found out we were going to start constructing a concrete wall along the property line'. 'She hated it — the wall, design, everything,' she said. She alleged the couple decided to take matters into their own hands on December 28, 2022, and began ripping down the contested section of the fence. 'So I go out and started screaming and it all becomes very nasty, and I asked my kids to call triple-0 and get the police to come,' Ms Martinez said. Warhurst also called triple-0, telling police Mr Steendyk had been 'hit on the head with a pipe' by Ms Martinez 'as he was trying to cut down the fence'. Officers from Eltham police station arrived and tried to defuse the situation. The blow-up led to years of back-and-forth legal salvos between the neighbours, including competing intervention orders. The ABC's article was published as Ms Martinez was waiting to face court on the yet-to-be-dismissed assault charge, as well as seven 'criminal charges' over the construction of the wall, which carried a $200,000 fine. Ms Martinez said all those charges had since been dropped. She sent an email to ABC chairman Kim Williams accusing the broadcaster of deliberately 'humiliating and defaming me through malicious content which Myf [allegedly] orchestrated' and demanding the presenter be stood down. A lawyer for the ABC responded, telling Ms Martinez her 'assumptions and assertions … are inaccurate', according to The Australian. 'On this basis, the ABC does not agree to comply with your request,' he wrote. 'In any event, we note (without admission) the article in question has been removed from websites controlled by the ABC.'
