AUSTRALIAN MEDIA:

The ABC has admitted it failed to declare a commercial sponsorship deal in its broadcast of the first of four Boyer Lectures being delivered this year by indigenous activist Noel Pearson. (pictured)

An ABC spokesperson said the national broadcaster was unaware until the first lecture was going to air that Mr Pearson had a commercial arrangement with a Brisbane firm specialising in men’s headwear.

“This was clearly an unintended oversight and the commercial sponsorship arrangement under which Mr Pearson received free headwear will be noted in the credit sequence of the remaining three Boyer Lecture broadcasts screening during November,” the spokesperson said.

“We take these sorts of declarations very seriously, being a non-commercial national broadcaster, and we will correct the record without hesitation.”

Al O’Pecia, owner of the Brisbane firm Fedoras for Baldies, said he had not intended to make any commercial gain from the arrangement he had struck with Mr Pearson to wear one of his products for free while delivering the Boyer Lectures.

“I simply wanted to tell the world, well at least 50% of it, that there is hope if you are bald and don’t want to admit it,” Mr O’Pecia said.

“We help hundreds of mainly middle-aged men hide the fact that they are bald or balding by supplying fedoras that they can wear 24/7.

“I’ve lost count of the number of our clients I see at major events, on stage, or on TV wearing an FFB-supplied hat.

“I think it really helps them because once it’s on their head it almost never comes off and nobody can tell they are bald or balding, especially if they wear it at night and indoors as Mr Pearson was doing,” Mr O’Pecia said.