Channel Nine has apologised to billionaire Gina Rinehart for its depiction of her in its 2015 miniseries The House of Hancock, and agreed not to circulate the program again.
Rinehart had instigated legal action against Nine and the production company responsible for the program, Cordell Jigsaw, over the two-part miniseries recounting the family drama of one of Australia’s wealthiest mining dynasties.
Nine and Cordell Jigsaw apologised to Rinehart in a statement on Friday that clarified the program “was a drama, not a documentary, and certain matters were fictionalised for dramatic purposes”.
“Nine and Cordell Jigsaw accept that Mrs Rinehart had a very loving and close relationship with her mother, father and husband, and has with [her children] Hope and Ginia ...
“Nine and Cordell Jigsaw accept that Mrs Rinehart found the broadcast to be inaccurate. That was certainly not the intention of Nine or Cordell Jigsaw, and each unreservedly apologises to Mrs Rinehart and her family for any hurt or offence caused by the broadcast and its promotion.”
The statement also acknowledged Rinehart’s “significant contribution” to Australia’s industry and economy, as well as her “longstanding support of elite sport and numerous worthwhile charities”.
The program makers agreed to pay Rinehart’s legal costs, likely to be a six-figure sum, and confirmed that the miniseries would not be sold to streaming channels, foreign markets or released on DVD.
The first episode attracted more than 1.4 million viewers when it aired on the Nine network in February 2015.
Rinehart won the right to see the second episode before it was broadcast in an out-of-court settlement, and ordered Nine edit parts of it out. She later took legal action against the network – and subsequently the production company – for defamation.
Rinehart’s solicitor, Mark Wilks, said at the time the House of Hancock was “twisted” and “offensive”, and that some scenes were “entirely false”.
In a statement Rinehart said she was pleased to receive a public apology for “such an inaccurate and distorted mini series”.
“This case was not about money. It was about Mrs Rinehart standing up for her deeply loved family members to try to stop the further spreading of unfair and grossly disgraceful falsehoods about her family, especially when certain of her family members are no longer here able to defend themselves.”
She called on politicians to “activate long overdue reform” to protect public figures from unfair representations in the media.
In January, an Oxfam report found Rinehart to be among the wealthiest 1% of Australians.
