Karl hits back: ‘Proud of my heritage’

Today host Karl Stefanovic has hit back at a new report that labels Nine the "worst offender" in portraying diversity on-screen.

In a tweet sent to news.com.au, Stefanovic said he was "proud" of his "diverse heritage" and said his employer had "always supported that."

Stefanovic's comments come in response to an article by news.com.au's Wenlei Ma, detailing the findings of a new report by Media Diversity Australia "which reveals the embarrassing chasm between the multicultural make-up of Australians, and the on-air journalists, presenters and commentators featured in local news and current affairs programming."

"Only 11.4 per cent of on-air talent in news and current affairs come from a non-Anglo-Celtic and non-European background despite those minority groups representing 24 per cent of the wider Australian population," Ma writes. "Which means for every Waleed Aly, there are nine Karl Stefanovics."

Nine is identified as the "worst offender" in the report, with only 3 per cent of its on-air talent coming from a culturally diverse background - but as the article was published this morning, Stefanovic responded.

"Im not sure how diverse you need to be to qualify for diverse but I'm of Yugoslav German and British heritage with a surname Stefanovic. I used to be called a wog at school. I'm proud of my heritage. Im pretty sure it's diverse and nine have always supported that," he wrote.

Stefanovic's response was met with a mixed reaction online. "Maltese Serbian here. We're pretty damn white in the scheme of things, Karl. This isn't our fight mate," wrote fellow journalist Mike Stevens.

The non-profit group that conducted the research, Media Diversity Australia, responded to Stefanovic's tweet, explaining that he was "counted in the data as having a European background."

Several prominent Australian media identities welcomed the report's findings:

But Channel 9 and Channel 7 both earlier questioned the methodology of the report.

"I don't think simply counting surnames on TV is an effective way of addressing the issue or helps in finding practical solutions to these challenges," Darren Wick, Nine's director of news and current affairs said in a statement to news.com.au.

"This report has clear errors and ignores the significant contribution of someone like Brooke Boney on Today, where is she one of four main hosts on the desk, instead simply listing her daily and regular contribution on the program at somewhere between 0.1 per cent and 0 per cent [an early copy of the report rounded Channel 9's overall Indigenous representation to 0 per cent but was revised to 0.1 per cent in the final release].

"This is not reflective of the real changes and proactive appointments we have been making in improving diversity in our television business."

Originally published as Karl hits back: 'Proud of my heritage'