Antoinette Lattouf hits out at ABC for paying for reporter Louise Milligan’s legal fees because she is ‘white’
Sacked radio host Antoinette Lattouf says the ABC picked up the legal bills for reporter Louise Milligan in a defamation case because she is ‘white’.
Sacked radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf has lashed out at the ABC on international TV, telling the BBC that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster paid for investigative reporter Louise Milligan’s legal fees in defamation proceedings because she is “white”.
Lattouf also claimed in the interview with BBC News presenter Matthew Amroliwala on the weekend that she was left without help from the ABC because she has “an Arab background”.
In the interview, Lattouf said after she was axed by the ABC on December 20, “all across the country Australians are asking what happened to Antoinette, why did this happen to Antoinette and what’s happened to our public broadcaster”.
She claimed the reason the ABC paid the legal fees for Four Corners’ reporter Louise Milligan after she made defamatory comments about former Liberal MP Dr Andrew Laming on social media, was due to the colour of her skin.
“There are people in that building and I would argue rightly so, provide far more inflammatory, sometimes in one case defamatory social media posts in which the public broadcaster paid for their legal case to defend this journalist, that journalist remains on air, the difference between them is they are white and I have an Arab background,” she told the BBC.
Dr Laming took legal action in 2021 against Milligan and the ABC paid her legal fees and damages, which cost taxpayers more than $200,000.
When Lattouf was asked on Sunday to provide evidence Milligan’s legal fees were paid because she was white, she did not answer the question.
3/5 pic.twitter.com/FwWsHJJd5D
— Antoinette Lattouf (@antoinette_news) January 20, 2024
Lattouf, a Lebanese-Australian woman, was scheduled to fill in for regular ABC Sydney host Sarah Macdonald for five days prior to Christmas, but was sacked on December 20 after her third shift after sharing a Human Rights Watch post about the Israel-Gaza war that read: “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a weapon of war in Gaza.”
She has since taken action against the public broadcaster in the Fair Work Commission after she claimed she was unlawfully terminated from her role, citing her fight against “racism” and “free speech”.
Lattouf also told the BBC there were other ABC staff members who shared the same Human Rights Watch post that she shared but they were not sacked.
“There are people at the ABC who shared the Human Rights post who work in news and current affairs who weren’t deemed to be controversial and who weren’t axed,” she told the BBC.
When asked by The Australian to give examples of ABC staff sharing the post, she instead referred to an article about starvation and not the same HRW Instagram post that she shared.
“If you would like evidence of ABC staff sharing an ABC article on starvation used as a tool of war, best to ask the ABC,” Lattouf said.
“There are many staff members I’m aware of shared the ABC article, and some shared the primary source which is the HRW report itself.”
On Monday the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance will hold a national meeting of union members at the ABC to discuss issues including managing director David Anderson’s failure to take part in a meeting with staff to explain why Lattouf was sacked.
Lattouf also told the BBC, a Lawyers for Israel group that wrote letters to chair Ita Buttrose and Mr Anderson demanding she be sacked seemed to have “a direct channel, access to very senior people, in this case the board, the chair of the board at the ABC and can influence an outcome so rapidly”.
Staff-elected ABC board member Laura Tingle was asked about these claims but did not respond.
On Sunday the activist group Free Palestine Melbourne gathered at Victoria’s State Library to protest against the sacking of Lattouf. Controversial author Clementine Ford was among those to address the crowd.
Despite the event being promoted as a protest against the sacking of Lattouf, Ford did not address the issue on stage.
She declined to comment when approached by The Australian.
The ABC would not comment.
More Coverage
‘Time for a rest’: John Laws calls time on radio career
Broadcaster John Laws, 89, has announced that he will pull the plug on his extraordinary 71-year media career next month.
Tight NRL finale draws strong TV audience
The ratings for the closely-fought match between the Panthers and the Melbourne Storm were up on last year’s NRL centrepiece but were easily outstripped by the TV audience for the lopsided AFL Grand Final a week earlier.