Antoinette Lattouf on her legal battle with the ABC and Women Who Win

In late 2023, Antoinette Lattouf had a five day contract to host the mornings program on ABC radio Sydney. It’d normally be a light and breezy week of broadcasting in the pre-Christmas wind down. Instead, it became the central flashpoint in a legal saga – when she was taken off air by management two days early, after reposting a Human Rights Watch report about Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. In response, Lattouf sued the ABC for unlawful termination – and won. It was a huge result for the journalist personally, but also one of broader significance, throwing up questions around the power of the pro-Israel lobby, the integrity of ABC management’s decision making processes, and freedom of speech.Antoinette’s new book is called Women Who Win, and it places her struggle in a larger context - of women throughout history who have taken on authority. It’s part memoir, part roadmap for change, asking what it takes to succeed when the odds and systems are stacked against you. “[Establishment media are] so concerned about advertisers or lobby groups – like the ABC running scared of the next attack by the Murdoch Press or the chain of complaints from pro-Israel lobbyists or gas lobbyists … Are they really giving a voice to the voiceless, or are they just making power comfortable? And when journalism in this country walks alongside or in step with powerful institutions and people, then our democracy is in a bit of trouble."