Bad for the BBC, bad for Britain, and bad for the world
The NUJ BBC World Service branch has passed a motion opposing job cuts in the UK and overseas, announced by the broadcaster this week.
The motion passed at a meeting on 30 January said:
NUJ members at the BBC World Service object to the BBC's decision to cut the World Service budget by £6m a year. This decision is bad for the BBC, bad for Britain, and bad for the world.
Announcing this decision shortly after getting a £33m a year funding boost from the UK government shows how little belief the BBC senior executives have in the World Service mission.
In an era of increasing polarisation, misinformation and disinformation, the world needs the trusted, impartial World Service more, not less.
When authoritarian governments aggressively try to restrict press freedom at home and even abroad, including transnational repression of World Service journalists, the need for a high-quality, editorially-independent World Service is increasing, not decreasing.
Losing journalists means lower quality content and programmes, and our audiences notice that. Yet the BBC is subjecting the World Service to death by a thousand cuts.
We have seen that wherever the BBC has retreated, it has been replaced by media outlets funded by the likes of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
We call on the BBC to reverse these shortsighted, damaging cuts, engage in meaningful discussions with the unions and outside stakeholders to find ways to secure sustainable, long-term funding of the World Service to make sure that it is capable of serving its audience around the globe.
We also call on the NUJ and everyone in the civil society who understands the value of the World Service to publicly campaign against the cuts to the World Service.