Court finds Australia's ABC wrongly fired journalist over Gaza post

Australia's public broadcaster ABC unlawfully dismissed a radio journalist over a social media post related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, a court found Wednesday.

ABC apologised after being ordered to pay Antoinette Lattouf 70,000 Australian dollars (US$45,000) in compensation, with a further financial penalty yet to be decided.

The broadcaster broke employment law by terminating her "for reasons including that she held political opinions opposing the Israeli military campaign in Gaza", Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah said in his ruling.

Lattouf took legal action after being dismissed in December 2023, three days into a five-day casual contract with the ABC.

She had re-posted to Instagram a Human Rights Watch video report on the Gaza conflict with the comment: "HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war".

ABC senior management's consternation over the post turned into a "state of panic", the judge said, and a decision was made to take her off the air "within the hour".