A senior Australian Jewish leader is demanding the New York Times fire a Melbourne-based reporter who admitted leaking the contents of a pro-Israel WhatsApp chat group to a third party, prompting members her to be abused and harassed by Palestinian sympathizers.
Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, told the Guardian on Tuesday that Gray Lady should be separated from Natasha Frost, the journalist whose leaked chat content was shared among 600 Jewish professionals on WhatsApp, resulting in death threats, docs and bullying. .
The Times said it took “appropriate action” against Frost, who remains employed by the paper.
“Yes, I think this is fundamentally a very serious breach of trust that resulted in very, very serious damage and harm to many, many people,” Leibler told the Guardian in response to a question about whether Frost should be fired.
“The confessions that have come out publicly for some of these people are what they are prepared to speak publicly, but we were acting on more than 25 people who were doxed.”
Leibler told the Guardian that Jewish professionals whose names, addresses and photos were leaked online have suffered mental health consequences that have prevented them from coming out publicly.
“For the system to work, journalists, like lawyers, must maintain those basic standards of integrity,” he told Frost.
The post has sought comment from the Times.
Leibler was reacting to a Wall Street Journal investigation published last week about the massive doxing incident, which has prompted Australian law enforcement officials to consider legislation that would make the practice public about sensitive personal data. of someone else online without consent is a crime.
According to the Journal, Frost downloaded about 900 pages of content from the chat thread and shared it with the subject of an article about an Australian journalist who was fired over social media posts critical of Israel.
The WhatsApp group consisted mainly of Jewish professionals who exchanged views following the horrific October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Frost became interested in the group and gained access as part of her research into a story about the controversial firing of Antoinette Lattouf, a Lebanese-Australian journalist who was fired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for Instagram posts in which she accused Israel of. of war crimes.
Around the time Frost published her Jan. 23 story about Lattouf’s shooting, a chart with the names, photos and home addresses of members of the WhatsApp group went viral among Palestinian sympathizers online.
Some of the members of the WhatsApp chat group reported that they had to close their businesses and move to other cities.
Others reported being beaten in the street by pro-Palestinian protesters.
“It has been noted that a New York Times reporter inappropriately shared information with the subject of a story to help the individual in a private matter, a clear violation of our ethics,” a Times spokeswoman told the Journal last week. passed.
“This was done without the knowledge or approval of The Times.”
Frost also released a statement through a Times spokesman that read: “I shared this document with an individual.”
“Its subsequent dissemination and misuse occurred entirely without my knowledge or consent,” Frost said in the statement.
The journalist added that she was “shocked by these events, which put me and many others in terrible danger”.
“I am very sorry for my decision.”
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Image Source : nypost.com