Journalist Antoinette Lattouf says she is considering her legal options after losing her ABC radio role over social media posts about the Israel-Gaza war.
Lattouf has been the subject of strident criticism from News Corp and pro-Israel lobbyists.
The ABC has not confirmed whether the posts were the reason she was dropped.
Lattouf had been filling in for Sarah Macdonald on ABC Sydney mornings.
“ABC Sydney casual presenter Antoinette Lattouf will not be back on air for her remaining two shifts this week,” an ABC spokesperson said.
Lattouf tweeted that she was “very disappointed” by the decision.
“I believe I was terminated unlawfully,” she wrote. “This is not a win for journalism or critical, fair thinking.
“I’m currently considering my legal options.”
Lattouf, a Lebanese Australian, is a contributor to various outlets including the Guardian, and is the founder of Media Diversity Australia.
Guardian Australia understands there were emotional scenes at the ABC, and that her supportive colleagues were overruled by upper management.
The journalist’s union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, is understood to be seeking more information on her behalf.
The ABC move comes amid a broader conversation about reporting on war in the Middle East. Lattouf was among more than 100 journalists, including journalists from Guardian Australia and the ABC, who signed an open letter about reporting on the conflict.
In response to criticism by the Australian Jewish Association and News Corp papers, Lattouf told Women’s Agenda this week that it seemed like “an orchestrated attempt to bully critical thinking and fact-checking out of the craft of journalism”.
“Nowhere is this more obvious than around reporting of and discussion of Gaza,” she said.
“I will continue to report and comment without fear or favour, especially when so many innocent lives are at stake and there’s so much hate and division in Australia.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry posted on Instagram that multiple complaints had been sent to ABC chair Ita Buttrose and managing director David Anderson, and welcomed the news she had lost the job.
A freelance contract between ABC’s Triple J radio and First Nations hip hop artist Miss Kaninna has also been scrapped.
On 24 November, Miss Kaninna, a Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Yirendali and Kalkadoon musician and Triple J Unearthed artist, played a 2012 hip-hop track titled Long Live Palestine. She said it was hard to believe the song was more than a decade old, “because 12 years later the genocide, the oppression and the continued hate towards Palestine people on their indigenous lands is wild”.
“From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free,” she said.
The ABC investigated after 10 complaints were made and the ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, found the song did not breach ABC standards, but her comments did. Cameron said ultimate responsibility for the pre-recorded comments lay with the show’s producers, who will undergo extra editorial training.
An ABC spokesperson said the broadcaster did not comment on the independent findings of its ombudsman.
The Guardian has sought comment from Miss Kaninna.
