Life: Birds 1 Criminal Justice 2

Media Watch

Investigative reporter and author, Paul Barry, will host Media Watch while Jonathan Holmes takes long service leave. A journalist for almost 40 years, Holmes joined the ABC in 1983 as the executive producer for Four Corners and has presented Media Watch for the past three seasons. He will enjoy a family holiday overseas before returning to Media Watch in February, 2011. Paul Barry hosted Media Watch in 2000. Barry said he was delighted to be involved again with such an iconic TV program, which for the past 21 years has played a crucial role in keeping the media honest. “It will be great to be back in the chair, even if it is only for three months,” he said. Barry's programs for ABC TV’s Four Corners in the late 1980s and early 1990s won him numerous television awards. Since then he has presented The Times and Witness on Channel Seven and reported for Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes. His exposé of tax-dodging barristers for The Sydney Morning Herald in 2001 won him a Walkley Award. He has also written six bestsellers, including The Rise & Fall of Alan Bond, described by one reviewer as ‘essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in business and its morality during the turbulent 1980s’. The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer was praised for combining ‘the highest standards of investigative journalism with admirable professional balance and a refusal to be intimidated by perceptions of power’. He’s also written a biography of James Packer (Who Wants To Be A Billionaire?).

Executive Producer: Lin Buckfield.