The Zionist Federation of Australia president, Jeremy Leibler, says the New York Times should sack a Melbourne-based reporter who downloaded and shared from a private WhatsApp group of Jewish creatives.
The subsequent leaking of the WhatsApp group chat, including members’ contact details, photographs and social media accounts, led to death threats, forced one family into hiding and had a profound effect on the 600-odd members, the partner in law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler alleged.
The New York Times has admitted in a statement that reporter Natasha Frost “inappropriately shared” the document with the subject of a story “to assist the individual in a private matter – a clear violation of our ethics.
“This was done without the knowledge or approval of the Times,” a spokesperson for the newspaper said.
Leibler was speaking after the publication on Friday of a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) investigation: “How a leak by a New York Times reporter led to an anti-doxing uproar in Australia.”
Asked whether he thought Frost should be sacked, Leibler said: “Yes, I think that this is fundamentally a very egregious breach of trust that resulted in very, very serious harm and damage to many, many people.
“The stories that have come out publicly about some of these people are the ones that are prepared to speak publicly, but we were acting for more than 25 people that were doxed.”
The umbrella body representing state-based Jewish organisations, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was approached but declined to comment.
The WhatsApp group was created in late October 2023 as a support group in an environment of heightened antisemitism after the October 7 attacks.
According to the WSJ, the Times reporter “downloaded about 900 pages of content from the chat thread and shared it with the subject of an article she had worked on. Later, the information wound up in the hands of the activists.”
A Times spokesperson told the WSJ the company reviewed the matter and took “appropriate action” against Frost. She remains on staff.
Frost said in a statement provided to the WSJ that she shared the document with one individual. “Its subsequent dissemination and misuse happened entirely without my knowledge or consent. I was shocked by these events, which put me and many others at terrible risk. I deeply regret my decision.”
Leibler said most members of the group who had their information leaked did not want to come out publicly because of the impact on their mental health, their jobs, their community involvement and their safety.
“For the system to work journalists, like lawyers, need to maintain those basic standards of integrity,” he said.
Victoria police would not comment specifically on the WSJ story, including whether it was aware of Frost’s involvement in the release of information.
A police spokesperson added the release of information was not being investigated as a criminal offence, but that allegations related to the release, such as threats, were part of the investigation, which started in February.
Earlier this year, the writer and commentator Clementine Ford was among a number of people who published the link to the log of the chat on social media.
The link reportedly contained a spreadsheet of links to social media accounts and another file that contained the photos of more than 100 Jewish people.
“This is a group of ‘creatives’ working to silence voices calling for Palestinian liberation,” Ford said at the time, an assertion some in the group denied.
It was revealed in February that a separate WhatsApp group chat had been used by pro-Israel lobbyists who coordinated a letter-writing effort in a bid to get the casual ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf sacked.
Frost’s co-byline appeared on a Times story that was published in January about Lattouf not being allowed to finish her five-day employment at the ABC.
Lattouf was taken off air three days into five days of shifts in December after she posted on social media about the Israel-Gaza war, which the ABC said was a breach of editorial policy.
Lattouf has previously vigorously disputed that claim, saying she was “fired for posting a fact the ABC itself was also reporting, namely a report of Human Rights Watch about starvation used as a tool of war”.
She is pursuing an unlawful termination case in the federal court.
The doxing incident prompted Mark Dreyfus, Australia’s attorney general, to propose a law that would criminalise doxing.
Lattouf and her lawyer declined to comment. The New York Times has been approached for comment.
Victoria police also would not comment on allegations from three people in the story who said they had made reports to police after their information was released and they were subsequently threatened.
“Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit detectives continue to investigate reports that the personal details of a number of people, who belong to a private social media chat group, were released online,” a spokesperson said.
“No arrests have been made at this time however the investigation remains active and ongoing so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.
“Throughout the investigation, people impacted were encouraged to report criminal offences to their local police. We are aware that a number of crimes have since been reported to other policing jurisdictions for investigation within Australia as well as overseas.”
• This article was amended on 22 August 2024 to include Antoinette Lattouf’s previous response to the ABC’s claim her post had breached editorial policy.
