By Matthew Doran, ABC
ABC managing director David Anderson Photo: Screenshot / YouTube / ABC
The managing director of the ABC has avoided answering questions about the sacking of journalist Antoinette Lattouf, citing legal advice that doing so could prejudice the hearing of the matter before the employment tribunal.
David Anderson and senior executives from the public broadcaster appeared before a Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra, as the management of public agencies is subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
Anderson faced questioning from deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi about the case involving Lattouf, who is pursuing the broadcaster in the Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal.
She claimed she was taken off air, while filling in as a presenter on ABC Radio Sydney, after she shared a social media post from Human Rights Watch accusing Israel of starving civilians in Gaza "as a weapon of war".
Lattouf's lawyers argued the ABC had bowed to pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists, who demanded she be taken off air.
Antoinette Lattouf. Photo: Instagram / Antoinette Lattouf
Anderson has repeatedly denied her removal was the result of the lobbying.
The ABC has said Lattouf was taken off air after breaching the organisation's social media policies.
Anderson said he was unable to answer Senator Faruqi's questions, despite her assertions his testimony before a parliamentary committee brought with it certain legal protections.
"I've also received specific legal advice that anything I say with regard to that matter might prejudice the proceedings that otherwise happen at Fair Work, which are considered to be legal proceedings," he told the committee.
The managing director said the Fair Work Commission would next hear the case on 8 March, and he would submit a public interest immunity claim to the Senate committee outlining why he could not comment on it.
In pursuing Anderson, Senator Faruqi noted the ABC had published stories on the Human Rights Watch report and asked why Lattouf had been dismissed "for communicating this same fact".
Anderson promised to detail his public interest immunity claim by the end of the week.
3000 complaints about coverage of Israel Gaza war
The ABC revealed 3000 complaints had been made regarding the public broadcaster's coverage of the Israel Gaza war.
The complaints covered about 1300 different issues.
"Largely they've been about impartiality and bias - and about 58 percent of those complaints have alleged that we have been pro-Israeli or anti-Palestinian, and about 41, 42 percent have been running the other way," ABC editorial director Gavin Fang told the committee.
"This is a really complex story, a very fast moving story, so we are always trying to meet our editorial policies and our standards."
Liberal senator Hollie Hughes grilled executives about the ABC's editorial guidance to staff on how to cover the conflict, and questioned how certain edicts had been determined.
She asked why the ABC's note to staff referred to the 'Occupied Palestinian Territories.'
"By using the term 'Occupied Palestinian Territory', it would be implying that there's a Palestinian state that's been subjugated by an external oppressor - but there is no Palestinian state," Senator Hughes said.
"It feeds into the narrative that Palestine itself actually exists.
"I think the term 'Occupied Palestinian Territories' is fairly widely used, including by the United Nations," Fang replied.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also uses 'Occupied Palestinian Territories' to describe the areas of the West Bank and Gaza, while noting "Australia does not recognise a Palestinian state".
- This story was first published by the ABC.
