Nine Entertainment has publicly apologised to Kullilli activist and academic Dr Stephen Hagan for claiming he was leading a campaign to change the name of a popular milk brand.
In 2020, the network shared on the The TODAY Show’s official Facebook page an article by the Daily Mail and a poll which alleged Dr Hagan was campaigning to have the name of Paul's "Smarter White Milk" changed.
They said the move followed his successful campaign to rename Cheese brand, Cheer.
In March, Dr Hagan filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission, claiming his requests to have the information retracted were ignored and he received serious threats as a result.
It's believed Dr Hagan reached a settlement with Nine Entertainment earlier this month. The settlement included a public apology.
"On August 4 2020, TODAY published a post on this Facebook Page stating that Dr Stephen Hagan was campaigning for Paul's to re-name its product," the broadcaster wrote in a public post to the TODAY Facebook.
"Since publishing that post, TODAY has become aware that Dr Hagan was not involved in any such campaign.
"TODAY sincerely and unreservedly apologises to Dr Hagan for the post."
Nine Entertainment's apology to Dr Stephen Hagan on Facebook. Credit: TODAY Facebook Page
He plans to take the Daily Mail and One Nation to court, having not reached a settlement with either organisation.
'All the hate mail came'
The controversy began when 'Mark Latham's Outsiders' Facebook Page mocked the Cheer Cheese rename and suggested "evil snowflakes" would next target brands that have the word white.
In August of 2020, a journalist from the Daily Mail contacted Dr Hagan for a response to the post.
Dr Hagan said he told the journalist he had no intention to launch the campaign against Paul's Milk unless it was something that the Indigenous community supported.
Later that day, the Daily Mail published an article titled 'EXCLUSIVE: Indigenous activist who forced C**n cheese from shelves now wants Paul's to consider scrapping 'Smarter White' milk brand - because it's offensive to Aboriginals'.
Dr Hagan said after the story was released, "all the hate mail came".
The Daily Mail published more articles on the matter, one which was shared on Facebook by One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson.
Then, TODAY shared the article with a poll on their Facebook.
Despite requested for the poll to be removed, it remained online until March when Dr Hagan launched an official complaint.
There were over 130,000 comments on the poll, some of which racially vilified Dr Hagan. He reported some to the Queensland and New South Wales Police.
