ABC strongly denies outside influence in removal of Antoinette Lattouf

The ABC’s senior management has strongly denied being influenced by outside lobbyists when it fired journalist Antoinette Lattouf, with the managing director, David Anderson, addressing the issue in an all-staff email.

Staff at the ABC headquarters in Sydney threatened to walkout unless management addressed concerns raised by a Sydney Morning Herald report that it had seen a chain of leaked WhatsApp messages showing a campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists to have Lattouf sacked days before her dismissal.

But in an email sent to staff late on Wednesday afternoon, Anderson, who is on leave, wrote that the ABC’s independence was of “paramount importance”.

“The ABC rejects any claim that it has been influenced by any external pressure, whether it be an advocacy or lobby group, a political party, or commercial entity,” Anderson’s statement said.

Staff, he added, “routinely perform their roles for the Australian public without fear or favour, adhering to our responsibilities of impartiality and accuracy – often in the face of significant unwarranted criticism”.

The ABC took “legitimate” criticism, feedback and complaints seriously, but would “continue to support [staff] and their work, internally and externally”, Anderson said.

The issue is expected to get another airing when the broadcaster defends a wrongful termination claim from Lattouf at the Fair Work Commission in Sydney on Thursday.

Lattouf’s claim says she was fired on the grounds of “political opinion or a reason that included political opinion”, and was later expanded to include race due to her Lebanese heritage.

The ABC confirmed in a submission to the Fair Work Commission, seen by Guardian Australia on Tuesday, that Lattouf was in December terminated from hosting Sydney Mornings on ABC radio two days before her contract ended after she reposted a Human Rights Watch (HRW) video on Instagram to her personal account.

Lattouf has said in her submission she was told by management it was acceptable to post factual-based content, while the ABC has claimed in its submission Lattouf was told “it’s probably better that you don’t post anything while you’re with us because of the risk of the perception that you are biased and not balanced”.

Earlier on Wednesday, a national staff meeting of about 200 ABC union members endorsed a Sydney staff resolution on Tuesday calling for Anderson to return to work and meet with staff to explain why Lattouf’s employment was terminated.

The MEAA union house committee said on Wednesday night that it was “disappointed” that Anderson had not responded to member requests for a meeting, noted the response did not address member concerns, and reiterated members’ request for an urgent meeting with staff and their representatives.

Staff had expressed concern over the handling of the termination of Lattouf from a radio hosting role in December after a social media post related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

On Tuesday, the Nine newspapers published WhatsApp messages showing a letter-writing campaign from pro-Israel lobbyists targeted Anderson and the ABC chair, Ita Buttrose.

On Wednesday, staff also called for management to ensure complaints were dealt with through established processes and not back channels, and a guarantee of support for those who face criticism or attack.

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Union members expressed concern over Lattouf’s sacking and said there was a lack of support for ABC staff “who come under attack in coordinated campaigns”.

“Those attacks are not distributed evenly and disproportionately affect journalists of colour. The lack of adequate support creates an unsafe workplace. The appearance of kowtowing to lobby group pressure is embarrassing and damaging to the ABC’s reputation and impacts our ability to report without fear or favour.”

HRW’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said it was disturbing to learn the ABC’s justification for terminating Lattouf’s contract was due to sharing HRW material.

“Human Rights Watch reporting is used by the media, government officials and courts the world over – including the ABC. Journalists should be encouraged to amplify human rights reporting not penalised for doing so,” she said.

“This could have a chilling effect on the ability of Australian journalists to share human rights content from reputable organisations which is deeply troubling.”

One ABC house committee member, who spoke to Guardian Australia on the condition of anonymity, earlier said staff had yet to hear from Anderson on what they said was an “emerging crisis” at the national broadcaster. They said staff felt like they were not being backed from external attacks, citing the Indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant leaving the ABC, among other examples.

“It’s not like it’s just about Antoinette. It’s just that it is a trigger point. It is an extreme example of what staff are feeling,” they said.

A former head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, told ABC’s RN Breakfast on Wednesday that Lattouf’s repost of the HRW video was a “completely factual, uncontroversial report”, and the ABC’s response “seems to be a capitulation to pressure to not criticise Israel”.

“I can’t say for sure what ABC executives had going on in their mind, but this idea that it is somehow controversial to report what Israel is doing, unquestionably is crazy,” he said. “That’s just not how a news organisation should operate. And it worries me because censoring what Israel is doing doesn’t stop what Israel is doing.”

He said it was not serving the Australian public if the ABC was not willing to stand up to pressure not to criticise Israel, and called on ABC management to admit its response was a mistake.