BBC jobs under threat

NEW BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has announced cuts of £320 million
a year, which will result in thousands of job cuts. About 3,000 jobs are
expected to go, over 2,000 people will be expected to move to Manchester by
2008.

The jobs, mainly in administration departments, will be cut over the next
three years through redundancies and outsourcing.

These cuts are to prepare for the renewal of the BBC’s charter in 2007,
where the BBC gets its right to be funded by the licence fee.

Molly Cooper, a member of the national executive of the National Union of
Journalists (NUJ), told the socialist, in a personal capacity:

"The announcement of up to 6,000 job cuts in the BBC is driven by the
desire of New Labour and their paymasters in the media, to see the break up of
a publicly-funded BBC. And with it the break up of trade union organisation
and agreements for journalists.

"Journalists in the BBC organised in the two media unions, NUJ and BECTU,
are now engaged in a political battle with the government to defend their
jobs, terms and conditions, and the very future of public-sector broadcasting.

"The NUJ pledge to resist any job cuts, with strike action if necessary,
must now be supported by all trade unionists, with the NUJ and BECTU planning
joint action to resist these attacks."

ITV IS also planning to cut 50 jobs from its regional newsrooms in Leeds
and Manchester. ITV bosses have said they might need public money to continue
producing regional news. The NUJ has protested to media regulator Ofcom,
pointing out that these job cuts are likely to threaten the quality of future
regional news output.

Ofcom will publish the final phase of its review of public service
broadcasting early next year.