Former ABC Chair Ita Buttrose sent a blackmail letter to lawyers acting for the ABC demanding they send her “further evidence” to lawyers acting for Antoinette Lattouf who is suing the ABC for unlawful termination.

Buttrose said in her blackmail letter if the ABC lawyers do not comply with her demands by 2pm on Friday (21/2/25) she would take the “take the appropriate action”.

The problem is that there is no “appropriate action” that Ita Buttrose could take and she is clearly motivated by trying to reverse the damage done to her reputation during the car crash performance she gave on the witness box.

Ita Buttrose leaking her letter to the media is not “appropriate action” but constitute various criminal offences by Buttrose.

The Antoinette Lattouf v ABC unlawful termination case is still afoot with evidence being given a couple of weeks ago and final arguments are set down for this Thursday (27th) and Friday (28th) and it’s not for some nutter to try to highjack the court case for their own benefit. 

I don’t have a copy of Buttrose’s blackmail letter but I make out the key points below by putting 3 different reports from the old media together. 

I published the below video on Tuesday the 25th of February covering the key elements of this article.

On Monday the 24th of February News.com published an article titled  “Ita Buttrose calls in ABC lawyers in Antoinette Lattouf case” which starts off:

Former ABC chair Ita Buttrose has contacted lawyers for the national broadcaster claiming her part in radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf’s dismissal has been recounted inaccurately in court proceedings.

News.com.au has learned an emergency teleconference meeting was convened between Ms Buttrose and lawyers from Seyfarth Shaw Australia, who are representing the ABC, last Tuesday. (18/2/25)

At the meeting Ms Buttrose, who did not retain lawyers for her court appearance and was not subpoenaed, laid out her concerns about some of the evidence presented in the case brought by Ms Lattouf after the radio presenter was sacked three days into her five day contract in 2023 for sharing a Human Rights Watch post about the war in Gaza to social media.

The new concerns relate to conversations Ms Buttrose allegedly had with ABC executives concerning Ms Lattouf’s dismissal on December 20, 2023.

In a letter to the ABC’s lawyers dated Thursday February 20, which legal sources have revealed to news.com.au, Ms Buttrose refers to an emergency teleconference meeting she had with the ABC’s lawyers on Tuesday February 18.

Ms Buttrose signs off from her letter to legal firm Seyfarth Shaw requesting the receipt be forwarded to Ms Lattouf’s legal team.

On Friday, a spokesman for Ms Lattouf’s lawyer Josh Bornstein said no new correspondence had been received from the ABC’s lawyers.

Comment was on Friday sought from Ms Buttrose and the ABC in relation to her allegations. (Click here to read more)

On Monday the 24th of February The Guardian published an article titled “Ita Buttrose claims ‘inconsistencies’ in ABC boss David Anderson’s affidavit in Antoinette Lattouf case” which starts off:

Buttrose, the former ABC chair, sends explosive letter to broadcaster’s lawyers suggesting she could hand over ‘evidence’ disputing Anderson’s version of events to Lattouf’s legal team

The former ABC chair Ita Buttrose has pointed to alleged “inconsistencies” in David Anderson’s affidavit for a federal court case, citing differing details of where and when the outgoing managing director told Buttrose that Antoinette Lattouf had been sacked.

In an explosive letter to ABC lawyers seen by Guardian Australia, Buttrose last week urged the ABC to tell Lattouf’s lawyers about the alleged inconsistencies in Anderson’s version of events as set out in his affidavit. The affidavit was filed in court in Lattouf’s unlawful termination case against the ABC, which returns for closing arguments on Thursday.

Guardian Australia does not suggest that Anderson’s testimony in the federal court case was anything but his honest recollection of events that took place in late 2023.

Buttrose in her letter demanded the ABC contact Lattouf’s lawyers “as a matter of absolute urgency” and, if they failed to do so, she said she would “take the appropriate action”.

The evidence Buttrose refers to is an invoice from a hire car company which transported the chair and the managing director to a Christmas lunch on Wednesday 20 December 2023 – which she claims suggests that Anderson’s affidavit was contradictory.

“In the interests of transparency and our legal obligations to do so, the invoice from ‘Corporate Cars Australia’ must be provided to Ms Lattouf,” Buttrose writes in Thursday’s letter, adding a deadline of 2pm on Friday.

The ABC does not appear to have taken any action in response to Buttrose’s letter. The publicly available court file does not show any documents having been filed by the ABC since it received Buttrose’s letter. (Click here to read more)

On Monday the 24th of February The SMH published an article titled “Buttrose lobs bombshell David Anderson claims to ABC lawyers” which says:

The ABC’s former chair, Ita Buttrose, has written to ABC lawyers to dispute key evidence provided by managing director David Anderson to a federal court in the ongoing unlawful termination case brought against the public broadcaster by Antoinette Lattouf.

In the latest shock development in the high-profile case, Buttrose has disputed Anderson’s version of two key conversations that he provided during this month’s court proceedings in a legal letter sent to Seyfarth Shaw, the firm acting for the ABC in its defence against Lattouf.

Buttrose declined to comment on the letter when approached by this masthead. An ABC spokesman said the matter was before the court and it would be inappropriate for the ABC to comment while proceedings were under way.

Buttrose told ABC’s lawyers in the letter that it was important that the evidence she had provided was given to Lattouf’s legal team.

“Accordingly, please confirm with me by way of written correspondence when appropriate actions have been taken with regard to Mr Anderson’s affidavit.

“Similarly, please inform me as a matter of absolute urgency, if the ABC decides to withhold this evidence from Ms Lattouf’s legal team, so that I can take the appropriate action.

“In the interests of transparency, diligence and justice, a prompt response in this matter is imperative.” (Click here to read more)

I had to put parts of the 3 articles together to get the full story but even then some was missing.

There are also reports by Crikey.com that Ita Buttrose also wrote in her blackmail letter that she wanted the ABC’s lawyers to refer David Anderson to the court and police for perjury as per the below picture. The pot calling the kettle black.

I published a video on Tuesday (11/2/25) titled, “ABC’s Ita Buttrose commits perjury – The smoking gun evidence”, which focuses on a key piece of Ita Buttrose’s perjured evidence and it’s well worth watching as it details a lot of the background information to what likely motivated Buttrose to send her blackmail letter.

Ita Buttrose could and should be facing a number of charges, for sending her blackmail letter and then leaking it to the media, such as:

1. Interference in the administration of justice.
2. Attempting to pervert the course of justice.
3. Blackmail.
4. Attempting to have someone falsely charged – (David Anderson).
5. Perjury.
6. Contempt of Court.

Ita Buttrose was only a witness in the court case and she has no rights to demand the ABC or it lawyers do anything.

Court cases are meant to be prosected in court, not in the media by non parties, and the judge on Thursday should take action against Ita Buttrose.

The matter is back in court for final submissions on Thursday and Friday this week (27th and 28^th of February 2025). It should be livestreamed on the Federal Court of Australia’s YouTube channel.

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