Flurry of emails exchanged between Ita Buttrose and David Anderson before Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking | Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A list of emails between then ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson in the hours leading up to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking has been published by the federal court.

Lattouf is suing the ABC for unlawful dismissal. The ABC says it did not terminate Lattouf’s employment “but rather her employment with the respondent ended by effluxion of time at the conclusion of the applicant’s rostered shift on 22 December 2023”.

The documents, which indicate a flurry of communication about the casual presenter, were uploaded ahead of the start on Monday of an unlawful termination case brought by Lattouf.

“Between 11.04 am and 11.31 am on Wednesday, 20 December 2023, Ms Buttrose sent a series of emails,” the agreed statement of facts says.

Lattouf was taken off air three days into a five-day casual contract in December 2023 after she posted on social media about the Israel-Gaza war, which the ABC said was a breach of editorial policy.

The Fair Work Commission found she was sacked from a casual presenting role on ABC local radio.

The ABC argued at the commission that Lattouf was not sacked because she was paid for the full five days of her contract.

Following the Fair Work ruling, months of mediation last year failed and the case is proceeding to trial.

While the contents of the emails have not yet been published, the court file shows that Buttrose, Anderson and ABC chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor were communicating on the Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning before Lattouf was sacked at 1.30pm by ABC Sydney local radio management.

Court documents detail “at some time on Tuesday, 19 December 2023 Ms Lattouf posted on social media a series of Instagram stories”.

“Amongst other things, Ms Lattouf reposted a report from Human Rights Watch as a story on her Instagram account and added additional text reading ‘HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war’.

“On a number of occasions between 18 and 20 December 2023, the ABC reported on Human Rights Watch’s claims that Israel was “weaponising starvation in Gaza”.

Lattouf presented her third Mornings program that Wednesday after she had been hired to fill in for a week for Sarah Macdonald, who was later to be dropped by the ABC.

Anderson sent an email at 10.58am on the Wednesday to Buttrose “responding to Ms Buttrose’s email from 9.59 pm on Tuesday, 19 December”, the document says.

An hour after Lattouf was told she would not be completing her final shifts, the Australian’s Sophie Elsworth published an article headlined “ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf sacked after anti-Israel social media posts”.

“Ms Elsworth could only have known of the applicant’s dismissal by that time from a source within the ABC,” the statement of claim says. In its defence filed with the court the ABC denies this claim.

Earlier, about 30 minutes after Lattouf came off air, Elsworth sent an email to ABC communications, at 11.24am.

According to Lattouf’s amended statement of claim, between 10 and 20 December Buttrose and Anderson “received multiple letters and emails complaining” about her.

The ABC said it received multiple emails from 18 December and that the complaints concerned the ABC’s conduct in engaging Lattouf to present Sydney Mornings.

“The complaints … were sent by members of Lawyers for Israel and Jewish Creatives and Academics” and “sought to pressure the ABC to … terminate the employment of the applicant,” Lattouf’s claim said.

The ABC said this claim was “vague, embarrassing in the legal sense and liable to be struck out”.

Lattouf claims Anderson emailed Oliver-Taylor on the day of her first broadcast with words “to the effect that he had received complaints about the applicant”.

Lattouf says she was told by an ABC manager later that day that “the ABC had had a large number of complaints from pro-Israel lobbyists about the applicant being on-air” and she should “keep a low profile on Twitter” but “could post factual information from reputable sources like Amnesty International”.

The ABC disputed this part of the claim, saying it told her “the ABC has received some complaints about you being on-air in because of a perceived stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict based on your social media posts” and she should avoid posting anything about Israel/Palestine while she is with the ABC.

Lattouf’s statement says when she was dismissed, her manager said she would “not be returning to complete her last two shifts on air” because she had “breached the social media policy by posting the Human Rights Watch post because it called into question the ABC’s impartiality”.

The ABC denies this claim and says she was taken off air because she was advised “not to post anything that could be perceived as controversial on your socials”.

Guardian Australia revealed last week that Oliver-Taylor would leave the broadcaster next month.