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The Guardian
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The ABC squandered trust with its multicultural audience when it sent Antoinette Lattouf packing
The media industry is facing challenges on multiple fronts. Still, whether it involves working with broken business models or the disruption of AI in creating content, there is always hope in the face of an uncertain future if you have the trust of your audience. In the chaos of media distraction and twisted truth, trust is everything. So it is of great concern if the country's most trusted news outlet squanders this valuable attribute. The federal court ruled that the ABC unlawfully terminated the journalist and Media Diversity Australia co-founder Antoinette Lattouf in December 2023. The evidence gave an unflattering insight into the broadcaster's multilayered management and found that Lattouf had been unfairly fired for her political opinions. But what has shaken trust internally and externally is the impact of an orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists. Sign up to get Guardian Australia's weekly media diary as a free newsletter You break trust with the broader community when an interest group can go to the top of an organisation and get its way. Lobbyists skip the process that everyone else must follow. And it hits particularly hard among people who struggle to have their voice heard. For culturally diverse staff, offering a different perspective based on your insights and experience carries a risk. What should be a healthy process of testing the adequacy of a position can instead be a belittling experience, or you are labelled a threat to impartiality. For many journalists, Lattouf's experience at the ABC is a familiar one of shutting down the person instead of discussing the position. If that wasn't enough, the public broadcaster then pursued a legal argument that Lattouf had to prove the existence of a Lebanese race – a daring journey deeper into the territory of mistrust for a leadership team not following the compass of its company principles. The ABC withdrew the contentious race argument and apologised. Still, staff need to know it was withdrawn because senior leadership knows it is wrong and not just because of the angry response to it. We are weary of the cycle of corporate concern, review and apology, particularly when those involved continue to break new ground of mistrust with employees. Even more significant for the ABC is the break in trust with a multicultural audience. These communities already feel silenced by a media industry that neither understands nor represents them. Building trust with our communities means nurturing inclusion and calm reasoning around our most contested and controversial news stories. Silencing one side of the story isn't success. Shutting down voices is not 'social cohesion'. But silencing and shutting down were the preferred responses of senior ABC management under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists. We need a different approach to our most difficult conversations. When I attended a multicultural community consultation event in Sydney I was surprised by the importance our culturally diverse leaders place on media representation in creating a sense of belonging. Of all the challenges the communities face, the issue of media representation and trust is persistent. They are also concerned about how misinformation and disinformation will affect them, particularly their brilliant and bright young people. They value trusted sources of truth but it is hard to trust Australian media when the reporting of your community doesn't match what you know to be true. There is now considerable constructive discussion about media literacy and educating multicultural communities about news and credible news sources. But the decline in trust in the media should not be a problem for the marginalised audience to fix. It is the responsibility of news organisations to improve their cultural literacy and be open to adapting their position so both sides are better equipped to lift public discourse, not shut it down. Sign up to Weekly Beast Amanda Meade's weekly diary on the latest in Australian media, free every Friday after newsletter promotion Paula Kruger is the chief executive of Media Diversity Australia
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ABC managing director agrees process of removing Lattouf ‘completely abnormal from start to finish', court hears
Antoinette Lattouf was never given a chance to defend herself when she was removed from working at the ABC, in a process that was 'completely abnormal from start to finish', the ABC managing director has admitted in court. Giving evidence on Thursday at the federal court to the unlawful termination case brought by the former radio presenter, David Anderson agreed with Lattouf's lead barrister, Oshie Fagir, that the process had not been conducted in the usual manner. He also said the ABC's processes for dealing with employee misconduct were not followed 'to the letter' in Lattouf's case.'My understanding is that the allegations were not put to Ms Lattouf,' he said, agreeing that she was also not invited to respond to allegations against her. Anderson said he did not know if Lattouf had been offered a support person or if an independent investigator had been appointed by the ABC. 'The whole enterprise was completely abnormal from start to finish, would you agree?' asked Fagir. 'Yes,' said Anderson. Related:'It just can't be replaced': Mallacoota's black summer grief is still fresh after five years Lattouf was hired as a casual host on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program for one week in December 2023. She was taken off air three days into a five-day contract after she posted on social media about the Israel-Gaza war. Anderson told the court he believed Lattouf should never have been appointed as a casual radio host because of her 'partisan view on Israel-Gaza'. In Anderson's affidavit, published by the court today, he said local radio management, specifically Steve Ahern, has put the ABC in 'an unacceptable position' and 'made a negligent error of judgement by employing Ms Lattouf without assessing her prior media and social media activity'. Anderson said he would allege 'serious misconduct resulting in reputational damage to the ABC as a result of his actions'. Ahern has since left the ABC. 'I think [Lattouf's] appointment to being host of Mornings was a mistake,' Anderson said during cross-examination. 'My worry is … having somebody on air hosting conversations that matter to the community on live radio who holds a particular view and how they are able to be impartial when they have publicly stated something else.' Anderson said he had been alerted to concerns about Lattouf after her first day in the casual job, when he received a large number of nearly identical complaints from listeners, which he said appeared to have been part of a coordinated campaign. Anderson said he was not very familiar with Lattouf prior to this incident, but remembered she was involved with the organisation Media Diversity Australia and had appeared on the ABC's flagship panel discussion program, Q&A. Anderson told the court after Lattouf's first day on air he had spent time looking through her social media accounts. 'I came to the view that Ms Lattouf had made – well, there was antisemitic content on her social feeds.' In text messages sent by Anderson to the ABC's chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, that night Monday, Anderson wrote: 'I think we have an Antoinette issue. Her socials are full of antisemitic hatred.' Related: About 2,500 products will disappear from Coles shelves soon. Here's what we know Pressed in court about which posts contained 'antisemitic hatred', Anderson said: 'I have a recollection of her … challenging the existence of Israel, which I do believe to be antisemitic, but certainly her social feeds had antisemitic messages based within them.' He added he couldn't recall specifics of the messages, or if the posts had come from Lattouf, other people posting replies to her, or her replies to them, 'but that, to me, added up to antisemitism that was sitting on her social feeds', he said. Anderson said steps were taken after the complaints to minimise the risk of partisan commentary on Gaza on air, including instructing Lattouf not to editorially engage in the Middle East conflict while on air, introducing a delay, so the content was not broadcast live, and a 'dump button' that allowed producers to dump content they believed to be problematic. Anderson referred to these as 'mitigants' put in place, and said once they were introduced he 'expected [Lattouf] to be on air for the rest of the week' and had been surprised when he learned from Oliver-Taylor that she had been removed from the program. 'Frankly, that decision was a surprise to me. I didn't expect that at all. It was my understanding that Ms Lattouf was on air to the end of the week,' he said. Anderson was also asked whether he had any doubts that 'there exists a Lebanese race', as he was quizzed about the ABC's workforce being made up of 'many cultures, races and communities'. 'If somebody tells me they're Lebanese, I don't question whether they mean it's race or national identity,' he said. When pushed by Fagir as to whether there is 'a Lebanese race in your view or not', Anderson replied: 'I haven't formed a view as to whether there is or there isn't.' Fagir said in his opening statement on Monday that the broadcaster rejected Lattouf's claim of racial discrimination, because she has not proven being Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab is a race. However, the ABC's lead barrister, Ian Neil SC, said in court on Wednesday that 'the ABC does not deny the existence of any race' and the onus was on Lattouf to provide evidence in relation to any race claim she may make. Mark Spurway, the acting manager of ABC Radio Sydney at the time of Lattouf's removal from the ABC, also gave evidence on Thursday. He recalled that he had praised Lattouf's performance on the Mornings program for her first two shifts, agreeing that he had told her in front of other staff: 'you're sounding good, you're doing a great job'. He also conceded that her removal was a complete shock to him and other staff. 'Correct, I was surprised,' he said. Spurway had made inquiries about paying Lattouf for the final two shifts that she had been contracted for but did not present. In last year's Fair Work Commission hearing, the ABC argued that the fact she had been paid for all shifts was evidence that she had not been sacked. The commission ruled she had been sacked, paving the way for this week's federal court case. Spurway denied he had inquired about her payment for the last two shifts because he thought doing so would assist the ABC in the litigation that Lattouf commenced in December 2023. 'I thought it was a fair thing to do, and I made that call the same day that Ms Lattouf left the ABC … I thought, she had a contract for five days, we'd asked her to le–', he cut himself off and rephrased, 'to not present Thursday and Friday and I thought, well, the best thing to do was to pay her for that time in lieu.' 'You hadn't asked her to not present, you told her she wasn't going to present,' said Philip Boncardo, one of Lattouf's barristers. 'She was asked not to present. She was told, yeah, that she was not required for Thursday and Friday.' The case, which was due to finish hearing evidence on Friday, is running at least a day behind schedule and will not conclude this week, the judge said.
The Guardian
06-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
ABC managing director agrees process of removing Lattouf ‘completely abnormal from start to finish', court hears
ABC's managing director David Anderson has conceded the process of removing Antoinette Lattouf from the broadcaster in December 2023 was 'completely abnormal from start to finish'. Giving evidence on Thursday at the federal court to the unlawful termination case brought by the former radio presenter, Anderson agreed with Lattouf's barrister Oshie Fagir that the process had not been conducted in the usual manner. He also said the ABC's processes for dealing with employee misconduct were not followed 'to the letter' in Lattouf's case. 'My understanding is that the allegations were not put to Miss Lattouf,' he said, agreeing that she was also not invited to respond to allegations against her. Anderson said he did not know if Lattouf had been offered a support person or if an independent investigator had been appointed by the ABC. 'The whole enterprise was completely abnormal from start to finish, would you agree?' asked Fagir. 'Yes,' said Anderson. Lattouf was hired as a casual host on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program for a week in December 2023. She was taken off air three days into a five-day contract after she posted on social media about the Israel-Gaza war. Anderson told the court he believed Lattouf should never have been appointed as a casual radio host on Mornings because of her 'partisan view on Israel/Gaza', but that he was surprised when she was taken off air, saying he thought the issues had been dealt with earlier in the week. 'I think her appointment to being host of Morning was a mistake,' he said. 'My worry is … having somebody on air hosting conversations that matter to the community on live radio who holds a particular view and how they are able to be impartial when they have publicly stated something else.' Anderson said he had been alerted to concerns about Lattouf after her first day in the casual job, when he received a large number of nearly identical complaints from listeners, which he said appeared to have been part of a coordinated campaign. 'What I assessed was that Ms Lattouf had been appointed somewhere, and I thought it was either news or radio… and, had a partisan view on Israel/Gaza, and was considered to be of concern to these people,' said Anderson. Anderson said he was not very familiar with Lattouf prior to this incident, but remembered she was involved with organisation Media Diversity Australia and had appeared on the ABC's flagship panel discussion program Q&A. Anderson told the court he had spent time on the Monday evening of the week Lattouf was on air looking through her social media accounts. 'I came to the view that Ms Lattouf had made, well, there was antisemitic content on her social feeds.' In text messages sent by Anderson to the ABC's chief content officer, Chris Oliver-Taylor, on that Monday evening, Anderson wrote: 'I think we have an Antoinette issue. Her socials are full of antisemitic hatred.' Pressed in court about which posts contained antisemitic hatred, he said: 'I have a recollection of her … challenging the existence of Israel, which I do believe to be antisemitic, but certainly her social feeds had antisemitic messages based within them.' He added he couldn't recall specifics of the messages, or if the posts had come from Lattouf, other people posting replies to her, or her replies to them, 'but that to me, added up to antisemitism that was sitting on her social feeds', he said. Anderson said that steps had been taken after the complaints were received to minimise the risk of partisan commentary on Gaza on air, including instructing Lattouf not to editorially engage in the Middle East conflict while on air, introducing a delay, so the content was not broadcast live, and a dump button, that allowed producers to dump content they believed to be problematic. Anderson referred to these as 'mitigants' put in place, and said once they were introduced he 'expected [Lattouf] to be on air for the rest of the week' and had been surprised when he learned from Oliver-Taylor that she had been removed from the program. 'Frankly, that decision was a surprise to me. I didn't expect that at all. It was my understanding that Ms Lattouf was on air to the end of the week,' he said. Anderson's cross-examination continues.
