BBC slashes news jobs in urgent bid to save £24M Licence Fee cash

BBC News has announced cuts of £24 million as part of wider BBC efforts to save £700 million a year.

The cuts include the global interview programme Hard Talk with presenter Stephen Sackur labelling the move as “depressing” for the future of in-depth interviews that “hold to account those who all too often avoid accountability in their own countries.”

The BBC Asian Network news service will also be part of the cuts.

The proposals would result in a loss of 155 jobs, with 130 journalism roles at risk and 25 media operations ones. The £24 million saved makes up 4% of the corporation’s news budget.

It will also include some changes, such as BBC Radio Live’s overnight programme moving to the BBC’s nations and local teams.

Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News, remains certain that even after the savings, the department “will remain very well resourced compared to [its] competitors.”

However, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is worried that the BBC could face long-term damage without urgent investment.

NUJ General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: “These latest cuts represent a damaging assault on journalism and news at a time when the UK needs greater plurality and diversity of news and trust in journalism is under attack at home and abroad.”

An announcement about the World Service was not included. However, the department has already seen cuts to foreign language services, including Chinese and Arabic.

A quarter of the World Service’s £366 million budget is contributed by the government, and the BBC has asked for an increase. The decision is to be made at the end of October.

On Monday, BBC director general Tim Davie warned that the UK is struggling to come against a rise in “pure propaganda” from countries like Russia and China because of cuts to the service.