Seven West Media has settled a lawsuit with residents of a remote Indigenous community over last year’s infamous “Stolen Generations” panel on breakfast show Sunrise.
Seven will issue an apology, pay the 15 members of the Indigenous group an undisclosed amount of money and cover their legal costs.
It comes after the Federal Court approved a settlement between Seven and the Indigenous group from Yirrkala, Northern Territory on Thursday.
The controversial 13 March segment, which the Australian Communications and Media Authority later found breached standards, saw an all non-Indigenous panel debate whether white families should adopt “abused” Indigenous children.
One commentator, Prue MacSween, said: "Please don't worry about the people who will decry and hand wring and say this will be another Stolen Generation. Just like the first Stolen Generation where a lot of children that were taken because it was for their wellbeing, we need to do it again".
In February this year, Yolngu woman Kathy Mununggurr and 14 others filed a defamation lawsuit, saying footage of them broadcast during the panel implied they themselves had “abused” children.
The lawyer acting for the Indigenous group, Stewart O’Connell, said his clients were pleased a settlement has been reached.
“A public apology will go a long way to resolving the hurt, shame and distress that our clients and the Yolngu people generally have endured,” he said in a statement reported by multiple media outlets.
In the fallout from the 13 March segment, another panel on the "complex and very emotional issue" of childhood protection in Indigenous communities was conducted with Indigenous experts.
Sunrise co-host David Koch acknowledged the previous segment had "sparked concern and protests "and the program was "responding to calls by the Aboriginal community to look at the issue with the experts".
