ABC’s barrister Ian Neil, SC, laid out four key points as the public broadcaster made its opening arguments on day three of its Federal Court battle with freelance journalist Antoinette Lattouf in Sydney.

Neil reaffirmed the ABC’s position that chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor was the “sole decision maker” in removing Lattouf, rather than former chair Ita Buttrose or outgoing managing director David Anderson.

The ABC also took issue with the suggestion that any complaints made about Lattouf had any statutory significance on the decision or case.

Neil said the documentary evidence showed “the focus of each of those people was the perception of partiality, to which Lattouf’s social media activity had or might reasonably give rise, and the management of the risks for the ABC and its statutory obligations of impartiality”.

The proceedings are a full day behind schedule. Anderson is expected to be in the witness box for two hours of cross-examination on Wednesday afternoon. If that doesn’t run too far over, departing content chief Oliver-Taylor will be cross-examined.

Lattouf initially took the public broadcaster to the Fair Work Commission after she was sacked in late 2023, three days into a five-day contract hosting a local radio show in Sydney. Since then, it has snowballed into a full-blown crisis for the ABC.

She was sacked after reposting a report from Human Rights Watch on her Instagram account and is claiming, in part, this was due to expressing political opinion and racial discrimination.

More to come

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