The ABC this morning confirmed the rumours that Jo Puccini will be the new executive director of Media Watch. She will return to the program – on which she has worked as a researcher, supervising producer and story editor – at the end of maternity leave in mid-April next year.

Filling in until then, after the departure of former EP Tim Palmer for Lateline, is Lateline reporter/producer Brett Evans, who is also an award-winning journalist and documentary-maker.

Liz Jackson, a former Media Watch presenter, told me that Puccini is “extremely smart, with a very good sense of television” – “one of those people you always welcome the chance to work with.” Another senior ABC TV journalist said that the appointment is “fantastic news” and that Puccini is a “great journalist” well-qualified for the job.

Puccini is best known for her work at Four Corners, where she shared Walkley awards for “Putting The Children At Risk”, “About Woomera” and “The Kilwa Incident”. By the time she returned to Media Watch, she had risen to the position of associate producer of Four Corners.

The ABC has already announced that the multi-award-winning former Four Corners producer and reporter Jonathan Holmes will host Media Watch in 2008. Puccini and Holmes worked together on a series of highly regarded Four Corners programs. No other significant staff changes are planned.

Puccini came to the ABC after working for the Seven Network, where she was a researcher/producer on The Times, Today Tonight and Witness.

The appointments come at the end of another turbulent year for the program, which has been targeted for criticism – some unfair, some not – by The Australian but also attracted legitimate concern over its failure to discuss the ethical issues raised the Costello-Wright-Brissenden off-the-record dinner – one of the key media ethics of the year – and the Fairfax HMAS Sydney debacle. The program’s record during 2007 was defended by Tim Palmer in Crikey.

Declaration: Brett Evans, acting EP of Media Watch, is a friend of mine.