Antoinette Lattouf makes shock admission about the ABC as she sues the national broadcaster over her sacking

Sacked ABC journalist and radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf has said she ‘still loves’ the public broadcaster and hopes to get back on the air again.

Lattouf was dumped by the ABC in December over her posts on the conflict in Gaza. She was just three days into a week-long stint as fill-in host on Radio Sydney’s morning show.

She has since launched legal action against the ABC with the Fair Work Commission, claiming the decision was political, based on her stance on Palestine and her Lebanese heritage.

Lattouf featured on Abbie Chatfield’s It’s A Lot podcast on Tuesday morning, with the host joking she had lost the ABC ‘as a friend’.

The journalist quickly clarified she ‘still loves the ABC’ and said she ‘plans to get back on-air’.

‘An organisation is only as good as the people who lead it, and if they are fearless, and I would argue at the moment they are not,’ Lattouf said.

‘But as an institution I will always advocate for the ABC, our democracy is better for it.’

When discussing the legal action taken, Lattouf said she was going to ‘stick it through’.

‘As long as it’s going to take because I think it’s so much bigger than me, and so much more important than me,’ she said.

Lattouf claims she was sacked after sharing a post from Human Rights Watch on her Instagram page that alleged the Israeli government was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. 

When podcast producer Lem Zhakaria asked Lattouf if she was ‘hesitant’ to lodge her case with Fair Work, the journalist replied with a resounding: ‘No’.

Lattouf was dumped by the ABC in December over her posts on the conflict in Gaza 

‘There was already a front page news story about me by the time I got home, so I thought well everyone’s watching, and it’s going to set a precedent,’ she said.

Chatfield also asked if she thought the reaction to her views would have been different if she was a ‘white man’.

‘I absolutely think things would be different,’ she said. 

Ms Lattouf has claimed she was ordered to go because she expressed ‘a political opinion and also because of her race’.

But the ABC has denied this, stating a decision was made to ‘not require’ her for the final two days of her five-day contract.

It has claimed she ‘failed or refused to comply’ with directions to not post on social media about controversial matters for the time she was presenting.

Hours after the podcast aired on Tuesday, Lattouf’s legal representatives met for the first case management hearing.

The Federal Court was told both parties were interested in heading to mediation as soon as possible.

Abbie Chatfield interviewed Lattouf on her podcast It’s A Lot on Tuesday