EXCLUSIVEDeadline reports that some BBC World Service teams will be asked to move out of the UK to prepare for cuts.
Staff within the BBC’s global news division are about to be informed with a set of proposals via Zoom by Liliane Landor, Senior Controller of BBC News International Services. Some members of management were informed yesterday.
The proposals come after Director General Tim Davie said the World Service’s budget would be reduced by £30M ($32.7M) by 2023/24 as part of a digital-first BBC blueprint and, speaking earlier this week at RTS London, he hinted that foreign-language news services could be cut if the government doesn’t help with increased financing.
Deadline understands the proposals center on a decentralization of the World Service teams, meaning that the majority of the Asian language services including the Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Chinese and some South Asian services targeted at India will be relocated from London’s New Broadcasting House to the respective countries they report on.
Landor will use Zoom “share the results of our strategic review and talk through our proposals for change and the strategic reasons behind these proposals,”Deadline received an email confirming this.
Deadline was contacted by team members to express concerns that many people will lose their jobs due to inability to relocate. One person pointed to difficulties with press freedom in some nations, such Thailand, which has limited press freedom, or Vietnam, where journalists are forced to report from neighboring states because of the ruling Communist Party.
The BBC Annual Report described the World Service in its description as “one of the jewels in the UK’s crown,” the part-government-funded division received £251M ($271M) last year, and there were 1,433 staff in the World Service Group.
These proposals will be presented to the unions. They also come at a difficult time for BBC News, which recently saw Deborah Turness, former president of NBC News International, become CEO.
Reports indicate that journalists are considering striking over the merger of domestic and international news channels. This will result in the loss of 70 jobs.
News was one of the most affected BBC divisions after the government made savings several years back. Many people have lost their jobs.
Although the BBC did not comment on the proposal, it is expected that more information will be available soon.