Antoinette Lattouf vs ABC: Bombshell judgement in case that plunged the public broadcaster into crisis
Antoinette Lattouf has won her case for unlawful termination against the ABC.
The casual radio host and Palestine advocate was hired for a week-long stint on ABC Radio Sydney 's Mornings program in December 2023.
Ms Lattouf, 41, was let go after sharing a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel was using starvation as a 'weapon of war' in Gaza.
The ABC claimed it took Ms Lattouf off the air because she failed to follow a direction not to post about Israel or the war in Gaza during her five-day shift.
But Justice Darryl Rangiah, who delivered his judgement in Sydney's Federal Court on Wednesday morning, disagreed.
He found the ABC contravened the Fair Work Act by terminating Ms Lattouf's employment 'for reasons including that she held a political opinion opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza'.
Justice Rangiah the ABC to pay Ms Lattouf compensation of $70,000.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Not just 'Alligator Alcatraz': DeSantis floats building another immigration detention center
Florida officials are pursuing plans to build a second detention center to house immigrants, as part of the state's aggressive push to support the federal government's crackdown on illegal immigration. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he's considering standing up a facility at a Florida National Guard training center known as Camp Blanding, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Jacksonville in northeast Florida, in addition to the site under construction at a remote airstrip in the Everglades that state officials have dubbed ' Alligator Alcatraz.' The construction of that facility in the remote and ecologically sensitive wetland about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of downtown Miami is alarming environmentalists, as well as human rights advocates who have slammed the plan as cruel and inhumane. Speaking to reporters at an event in Tampa, DeSantis touted the state's muscular approach to immigration enforcement and its willingness to help President Donald Trump 's administration meet its goal of more than doubling its existing 41,000 beds for detaining migrants to at least 100,000 beds. State officials have said the detention facility, which has been described as temporary, will rely on heavy-duty tents, trailers, and other impermanent buildings, allowing the state to operationalize 5,000 immigration detention beds by early July and free up space in local jails. 'I think the capacity that will be added there will help the overall national mission. It will also relieve some burdens of our state and local (law enforcement),' DeSantis said. Managing the facility 'via a team of vendors' will cost $245 a bed per day, or approximately $450 million a year, a U.S. official said. The expenses will be incurred by Florida and reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In the eyes of DeSantis and other state officials, the remoteness of the Everglades airfield, surrounded by mosquito- and alligator-filled wetlands that are seen as sacred to Native American tribes, makes it an ideal place to detain migrants. 'Clearly, from a security perspective, if someone escapes, you know, there's a lot of alligators,' he said. 'No one's going anywhere.' Democrats and activists have condemned the plan as a callous, politically motivated spectacle. 'What's happening is very concerning, the level of dehumanization,' said Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee. 'It's like a theatricalization of cruelty,' she said. DeSantis is relying on state emergency powers to commandeer the county-owned airstrip and build the compound, over the concerns of county officials, environmentalists and human rights advocates. Now the state is considering standing up another site at a National Guard training facility in northeast Florida as well. 'We'll probably also do something similar up at Camp Blanding,' DeSantis said, adding that the state's emergency management division is 'working on that.' ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Costa Rican court orders government to free migrants who were deported by US
A court in Costa Rica has ordered authorities to release foreign migrants who were locked up in a shelter after being deported by the US, according to a resolution issued on the eve of a visit by the US secretary of homeland security. About 200 people from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia as well as from Africa and some other Asian countries, including 80 children, were brought to the Central American nation in February under an agreement with the US administration of Donald Trump, a move criticized by human rights organizations. By partially accepting an appeal filed in March on behalf of the migrants, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice gave immigration 15 days to process the 'determination of the immigration status of the deportees' and their release, according to the resolution seen by AFP. The migrants were detained in February at the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM), 360km (220 miles) south of San José, on the border with Panama. However, in the face of criticism, the government allowed them to move freely outside the center in April. Some accepted voluntary repatriation, but about 28 of them remain at CATEM, 13 of them minors, according to official data. The habeas corpus petition continued until it was resolved Tuesday, and would serve as a precedent to prevent a similar agreement. The court also ordered Costa Rican authorities to 'determine what type of health, education, housing, and general social assistance they require from the State'. The resolution was published one day before a visit by US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, who will meet with president Rodrigo Chaves and tour the Los Lagos temporary immigration detention center. In March, an Afghan woman behind bars at CATEM told AFP she had fled her country because she wanted to study and work and not be forced to live with a man. She said if she was forced to return to Afghanistan, 'the Taliban will kill her'. The Taliban authorities' crackdown on women's rights has led to the arbitrary arrest and detention of many women and girls in Afghanistan. In addition to Costa Rica, Trump sent 300 deportees, mostly Asians, to Panama and 252 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, accused without evidence of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. They were imprisoned in a Salvadoran mega-prison for gang members.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Iran's 'paper tiger' leadership will fall, predicts Nobel peace laureate Ebadi
LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Wednesday Iran's war with Israel had revealed the weakness of its "paper tiger" leadership, predicting that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be toppled in a peaceful revolution. She spoke a day after a shaky ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump took hold between Iran and Israel, ending a short but intense air war in which Israeli strikes seemingly targeted Iran's senior leadership at will. "The people of Iran and the world saw that and realised what a paper tiger this administration is," Ebadi told Reuters in an interview in London, where she has lived in self-imposed exile since 2009. Ebadi, a lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her work defending human rights, has been a staunch critic of the Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979. Security officials said Khamenei, 86, went into hiding during the conflict, which wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military leadership and killed its leading nuclear scientists. "The people will not trust a leader who hides during times of war," Ebadi said. She said previous protests, such as those around the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in 2022, had shown mass public support for change. "I predict the people will succeed this time around and this regime will be gone." There have been no signs of significant street protests against the Islamic Republic, with relief dominating the first response of many Iranians to the ceasefire. While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate, has said the atmosphere of national solidarity during Israel's attacks would spur domestic reform, hardline security organs have also moved swiftly to demonstrate their control with mass arrests, executions and military deployments, officials and activists have said. "The regime is trying to compensate for its defeat by arresting the people," Ebadi said. "Because it fears that now that it has been defeated in this war, the people will find more courage and take to the streets."
