Monday, October 10, 2011

More budget cuts for BBC foreign coverage

Significant cuts to the BBC’s foreign coverage will be sustained following the decision to impose over £2 billion worth of cuts and 2,000 redundancies over the next four years, though coverage from Brazil and China is to be increased.

From next year, the BBC’s world news gathering department will lose £7 million of its £35 million annual budget, which will force the closure of some foreign bureaus and the hiring of cheaper local staff rather than British. “It will mean by 2017, we will look and sound very different to the way we do now,” world news editor Jon Williams told staff by e-mail, though the mood among the corporation’s foreign team is said to be incendiary.
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Additional story at the Irish Times http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/1008/1224305454828.html