ABC admits it should ‘never’ have argued Antoinette Lattouf had to prove existence of Lebanese race

Former ABC journalist Antoinette Lattouf arrives at the federal court last week. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The ABC’s earlier legal argument that Antoinette Lattouf had to prove the existence of a Lebanese race should “never have been made”, the broadcaster has conceded at a parliamentary committee which heard the case cost $1.1m in external lawyers.

The ABC’s defence of Lattouf’s unlawful termination case originally argued she must prove the existence of a Lebanese, Arab or Middle Eastern race, a tactic which angered ABC staff and Australian Middle Eastern and multicultural groups.