Source : Perth Now news
A long-serving ABC boss has quit the organisation in the wake of controversies surrounding sacked Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal.
The ABC confirmed Jo Puccini – the broadcaster’s head of investigations and current affairs – is leaving after 25 years.
Staff were notified by email about Ms Puccini’s resignation, which recognised her contribution to Four Corners, Media Watch, Lateline, 7.30 and the national reporting and investigations teams.
Ms Puccini said she was proud of the journalism she helped produce and the impact it had on helping the ABC’s audience understand the issues and events that affect them.
“It’s been an adventure and a privilege to work at the national broadcaster, an institution where I’ve made lifelong friends,” she said.
“It’s now time for a new chapter in my career.”
Ms Puccini’s resignation follows controversies surrounding sacked Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal and episodes he produced for the ABC.
Stories titled Cocaine Highway, Meth Highway and Remy was 12 when she became a drug dealer, have been pulled by the broadcaster.
Allegations emerged that a source being interviewed in Four Corners episodes were the same person, but had different names while their face was obscured by a mask.
An ABC spokesman said the action had been “taken following concerns identified about the veracity of sources used in the three programs”.
The former bikie turned reporter was sacked by the ABC in May, following an internal investigation into his podcast appearance with former underworld figure Ryan Naumenko last year.
Mr Fazal wrote on social media that he keeps being attacked.
“I’ve been trying to stay quiet and do my own thing and … just move on with my life,” he said.
“But they just keep going on attacking me, my work, my sources and apparently I’m the one that’s betrayed the ABC. I mean seriously.
“My access to these kinds of sources is why they hired me. They’ve said it themselves. They used me to tell the kinds of stories they wanted.”
