Antoinette Lattouf case LIVE updates: Closing submissions begin in Federal Court unlawful termination case

Antoinette Lattouf’s barrister, Oshie Fagir, says in his closing submissions to the court that if the evidence of Lattouf’s line manager is accepted by Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah it is “game over for the ABC”.

Elizabeth Green, now executive producer of ABC Radio Sydney’s Drive program, gave evidence in court earlier this month about her dealings with Lattouf before and after the journalist was abruptly removed as fill-in host of the Sydney Mornings radio program in 2023.

At the time of Lattouf’s removal from the airwaves, Green was ABC Radio Sydney’s content director and Lattouf’s line manager.

On December 19, 2023, a day before her removal, Lattouf shared a post critical of Israel from non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch on Instagram. She added the caption: “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war.”

One of Lattouf’s barristers, Philip Boncardo, put to Green during her evidence that she “expressed the view that you did not see anything wrong with Ms Lattouf’s post” during an internal meeting on December 20, 2023.

“I did say that,” Green said.

Green agreed she told Lattouf she had “tried to stop them” and “tried hard to keep” her.

Fagir has submitted that Green’s evidence, if accepted, shows that Lattouf was not given an explicit direction not to post at all on social media about the Israel-Gaza war during her planned five-day stint on ABC radio.

It was “always clear that the post was not inconsistent with what she had asked Ms Lattouf to do”, Fagir said.