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Did a journalist really lose their job for posting Human Rights Watch material on social media?
That’s the core question we’re asking this morning in an open letter to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the country’s national broadcaster.
Media have been reporting how journalist Antoinette Lattouf was fired after posting Human Rights Watch content on her personal social media account.
Specifically, it was a re-post of content on HRW’s Instagram account regarding the Israeli government’s use of starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza. To her re-post, Lattouf added a one-line summary: “HRW reporting starvation as a tool of war.”
Weaponizing starvation, as we discussed in this newsletter previously, is a war crime.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported a response from the ABC, saying Lattouf had been sacked “because she ignored a direction from managers and shared a controversial social media post from Human Rights Watch…” The ABC said Lattouf had been told not to post about “matters of controversy” during her five-day contract, but she allegedly did not comply with this directive.
One bizarre thing about all this is that the ABC itself reported on the very Human Rights Watch report Lattouf posted about.
The incident has kicked off something of a storm in Australian media, and some ABC staff have even threatened a walk-out in support of their colleague. Lattouf is arguing unlawful termination in a case before Australia’s Fair Work Commission.
We’ll leave it to the Commission to uncover the full facts of the case, of course, but there is a wider issue here we’d like the ABC to explain: does the broadcaster really consider factual human rights reporting “controversial”?
If so, as my colleague and HRW’s Asia Director, Elaine Pearson, writes: “This could have a chilling effect on the ability of Australian journalists to share human rights content from reputable organizations.”
Disturbingly, we have already learned that some ABC journalists, worried about losing their jobs, are deleting their past social media posts in which they’ve shared Human Rights Watch content.
The very concept of free media is based on freedom of expression and other core human rights values. It’s the foundation of independent journalism. In labelling factual human rights reporting “controversial,” a media outlet would be sawing through the branch it’s sitting on.
Journalists should not only be allowed to amplify factual human rights reporting, but they should also be encouraged to do so. No one should ever be penalized for it.
