London, Jan 26 (DPA) The BBC World Service is to cut about a quarter of its workforce and slash online services as a result of government funding cuts, the broadcaster said Wednesday.
Managers said that 650 out of a total of 2,400 jobs would be axed over the next two years to make annual savings of 46 million pounds ($73 million) by 2014.
As a result, the World Service is to close five of its language services – Albanian, Macedonian, Portuguese for Africa and Serbian, as well as the English for the Caribbean regional service.
Those measures will reduce the current global audience of the BBC World Service by 30 million from its current level of 180 million.
Analysts said it would mean that, for the first time, BBC global listening figures would fall behind those of US rival Voice of America (VOA) around the world.
The language service closures were not a reflection of the performance of individual services and programmes, BBC global news director Peter Horrocks said.
‘But we need to focus our efforts in the languages where there is the greatest need and where we have the strongest impact,’ he said.
Trade union leader Jeremy Dear said the ‘ferocious cuts’ to a valued national service were ultimately ‘destroying public services’ in Britain.
‘By cutting the service the government will cut British influence in the rest of the world, and cuts will also be deeply damaging for objective quality news services around the globe,’ said Dear.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) would join other media trade unions at the BBC to ‘defend jobs and quality broadcasting’ at the BBC’, he added.
The BBC is also planning to cut its online budget by 25 percent from 137 million pounds ($217 million) to 103 million pounds ($163 million) by 2013/2014, with the loss of up to 360 posts.
The World Service, which started broadcasting in 1932, costs 272 million pounds ($431 million) a year to run and has an audience of 241 million worldwide across radio, television and online.
