<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>339198</docID> <postdate>2025-02-27 11:39:16</postdate> <headline>Pro-Palestine radio host ‘benefitted’ from ABC dismissal</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-339199" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20250227168958144541-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Closing arguments have begun in journalist Antoinette Lattouf's case against the ABC. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Miklos Bolza</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>The ABC plans to argue a casual radio host benefitted from her dismissal after sharing a social media post critical of Israeli acts in Gaza.</strong></p> <p>Antoinette Lattouf was let go after three days of a week-long fill-in stint on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program when she shared a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel used starvation as a "weapon of war" in Gaza.</p> <p>She went after the ABC in the Fair Work Commission and escalated the case to the Federal Court, where she sued for penalties and damages.</p> <p>But the broadcaster's barrister Ian Neil SC said that Lattouf had actually furthered her freelance career following the controversy surrounding her truncated December 2023 radio stint.</p> <p>In closing submissions to the court on Thursday, he noted the journalist had grown her Instagram following after her dismissal and that she admitted under cross-examination the increased online reach helped in her work.</p> <p>"Are you going to be submitting that she benefitted from her treatment ... at the ABC?" Justice Darryl Rangiah asked.</p> <p>"Yes," Mr Neil said.</p> <p>Lattouf took to the witness box during seven hotly contested days of evidence earlier in February, when key figures from the public broadcaster also appeared.</p> <p>They included former chair Ita Buttrose and outgoing managing director David Anderson.</p> <p>The 41-year-old journalist claims she was ousted after pressure from a pro-Israel lobby group that sent swathes of complaints to the ABC.</p> <p>The ABC denies this, saying she was let go after failing to obey a direction not to post anything relating to Israel or Gaza while she worked there.</p> <p>Lattouf's barrister Oshie Fagir is also presenting closing arguments about why his client believes ABC breached the law.</p> <p>Executives from the broadcaster recently revealed it had spent $1.1 million in taxpayer funds defending the case to date after its failed attempts to reach a settlement.</p> </body>