Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler believes the New York Times should fire a Melbourne reporter who downloaded and shared content from a private WhatsApp group of Jewish creatives.

The subsequent leak of the WhatsApp group chat containing members’ contact details, photos and social media accounts led to death threats, forced a family underground and had a profound impact on its approximately 600 members, claimed law firm partner Arnold Bloch Leibler.

The New York Times admitted in a statement that reporter Natasha Frost had “inappropriately” shared the document with the person in order to “assist the person in a private matter – a clear violation of our ethics.”

“This was done without the knowledge or consent of The Times,” a spokesman for the newspaper said.

Leibler spoke following the publication of an investigation by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Friday: “How a leak by a New York Times reporter sparked an uproar against doxxing in Australia.”

When asked if he thought Frost should be fired, Leibler said, “Yes, I think it’s basically a very egregious breach of trust that has resulted in very, very serious harm to many, many people.”

“The stories that have come out about some of these people are the ones that can be talked about publicly, but we have worked for more than 25 people whose data has been exposed.”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the official national umbrella organization for Australia’s Jewish community, was contacted but declined to comment.

The WhatsApp group was founded at the end of October 2023 as a self-help group in an environment of increased anti-Semitism following the attacks of October 7.

According to the WSJ, the Times reporter “downloaded about 900 pages of content from the chat thread and shared it with the person who was the subject of an article she had been working on. The information later ended up in the hands of activists.”

A Times spokesperson told the WSJ that the company has reviewed the matter and taken “appropriate action” against Frost. She will remain with the company.

Frost said in a statement to the WSJ that she had shared the document with one person. “Its subsequent distribution and misuse occurred entirely without my knowledge or consent. I was shocked by these events, which placed me and many others in terrible danger. I deeply regret my decision.”

Leibler said most members of the group whose information was leaked did not want to go public because of the impact it would have on their mental health, their jobs, their community involvement and their safety.

“For the system to work, journalists, like lawyers, must adhere to these basic standards of integrity,” he said.

Victoria Police declined to comment specifically on the WSJ article or whether they knew of Frost’s involvement in the release of the information.

A police spokesman added that the publication of the information was not being investigated as a criminal offense, but that related allegations, such as threats, were part of the investigation that began in February.

Among the people who posted the link to the chat transcript on social media earlier this year was author and commentator Clementine Ford.

The link reportedly contained a spreadsheet with links to social media accounts and another file with photos of more than 100 Jews.

“This is a group of ‘creatives’ working to silence the voices calling for the liberation of Palestine,” Ford said at the time, a claim some in the group denied.

In February, it was revealed that pro-Israel lobbyists had used a separate WhatsApp group chat to coordinate a letter-writing campaign to secure the dismissal of ABC anchor Antoinette Lattouf.

Frost’s co-author appeared in a Times article published in January about Lattouf not being allowed to finish her five-day contract with ABC.

Lattouf was removed from the program three out of five working days in December after she posted on social media about the war in Gaza, which ABC said was a violation of editorial guidelines.

She is pursuing a wrongful termination case in federal court.

The doxing incident prompted Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to propose legislation that would criminalize doxing.

Lattouf and her lawyer declined to comment. The New York Times was contacted for comment.

Victoria Police also declined to comment on allegations made by three people mentioned in the story, who said they reported the incident to police after their information was published and received threats as a result.

“Detectives from the Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit continue to investigate reports that the personal details of a number of people belonging to a private social media chat group have been published online,” a spokesman said.

“No arrests have been made to date, however the investigation is ongoing and it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.

“Throughout the investigation, those affected were encouraged to report crimes to their local police. We are aware that a number of crimes have now been reported to other police agencies for investigation in Australia and overseas.”