The ABC has made a belated apology to Gina Rinehart for its Race Around The World program, while the broadcaster’s current affair boss has quit as investigations continue into the now-discredited journalism of star bikie-turned reporter Mahmood Fazal.

Under threat of legal action by Mrs Rinehart’s mining company Hancock Prospecting, ABC’s managing director Hugh Marks apologised to the billionaire magnate on Thursday — 25 days after the program aired a skit featuring a contestant fantasising about committing an act of sexualised violence against her.

The four-minute video titled “A Very Relaxing Video” — which was aired alongside several other sketches on the July 12 episode — has been removed from ABC platforms.

“The ABC refers to the film in a recent episode of Race Around The World referencing Mrs Gina Rinehart AO,” Mr Marks said in a statement.

“While the Ombudsman has found that the film did not breach the ABC’s editorial policies, the ABC acknowledges the episode has fallen short of community expectations.

“The ABC apologises to Mrs Rinehart and to anyone else affected or upset by the publication of the film.

“As part of our review of this matter, we have considered whether the guidance in the ABC Editorial Policies adequately reflects current community expectations.

“We have also considered whether the relevant guidance sufficiently distinguishes between news and non-news content.

“As a result, the ABC will amend its guidance as it applies to violence.

“The film has been edited on the ABC’s platforms to remove the relevant material.”

It comes after Hancock Prospecting, where Mrs Rinehart is executive chair, gave legal notice to ABC chair Kim Williams, deputy chair Lisa Caffery and Mr Marks.

Hancock Prospecting had alleged the ABC breached multiple Australian criminal and civil laws by continuing to publish that segment.

In a statement published through the ABC last week, contestant Kate McGuinness claimed her comments were not meant to be taken seriously and were not intended to promote violence.

“The sense of humour featured in each of my films on the Race Around The World program is farcical,” McGuinness said.

Health Minister Mark Butler was among those who condemned the segment, calling it “pretty revolting”. Communications Minister Anika Wells described it as “unacceptable” but said she respected “the editorial independence of the ABC”.

Former journalists Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf — the latter of whom was last year awarded $220,000 after taking legal action against the ABC for what the Federal Court found was an unlawful sacking — took the side of McGuinness, saying they were surprised and disappointed by the lack of solidarity shown towards her from fellow creatives.

In further turmoil to hit the ABC, the broadcaster announced the resignation of its head of investigative journalism and current affairs Jo Puccini, who had been linked to a string of controversial decisions on flagship investigative journalism program Four Corners.

Her exit follows that of after former news director Justin Stevens who quit abruptly in May this year.

In an internal memo to staff, acting news director Donna Field acknowledged Puccini’s role in helping ”shape significant public interest journalism”.

Puccini has been involved in the production of since-retracted episodes of Four Corners from ex-bikie turned reporter Mahmood Fazal: Cocaine Nation and Meth Highway.

Puccini had publicly defended Fazal’s work before the episodes were removed from the ABC’s platforms due to accuracy concerns.

Puccini was also involved in the controversial production of 2024 story covering allegations of war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

The episode had included doctored audio which made it appear like a SAS commando had fired six shots from a helicopter back at unarmed civilians, instead of the singular warning shot fired in reality.

Stevens, who was news director at the time, admitted an ‘error’ had been made, but insisted Puccini was not to blame.

An episode of ABC’s audio program Background Briefing titled “Remy was 12 when she became a drug dealer” was dumped last week, with the broadcaster citing concerns “about the veracity of sources”.

Puccini held senior roles at Media Watch, Lateline, 7.30, Four Corners, the National Reporting Team and ABC Investigations.

In the internal memo, Field also included quotes provided by Puccini which expressed her pride in the journalism she helped produce.

“It’s been an adventure and a privilege to work at the national broadcaster,” Ms Puccini said.