BBC strike disrupts news programmes

BBC1′s Breakfast off air, Today on Radio 4 runs documentary and regular 5 Live Breakfast hosts replaced Viewers and listeners tuning in to BBC News programmes on Friday morning found disruption to the breakfast shows on BBC1 and Radio 5 Live and Radio 4′s Today due to a 24-hour strike by journalists. BBC1′s Breakfast was off air, replaced by a BBC News channel simulcast, while the regular 5 Live Breakfast hosts Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden were replaced by Ian Payne and Julia Bradbury. Listeners to Today were treated to a repeated documentary about the Russian Communist revolution in the runup to 7am. However, from 7am the BBC’s flagship radio news programme ran pretty much as normal with regular presenters Sarah Montague and Justin Webb, who is in Japan reporting on the aftermath of the tsunami that struck earlier this year. Picket lines were mounted from midnight on Friday outside BBC premises across the country, with the National Union of Journalists predicting a “solid response” to the walkout. The BBC admitted it expected widespread disruption to services and said it was disappointed by the industrial action and apologised to viewers and listeners. Negotiations with the NUJ over compulsory redundancies at BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring continued until the eve of the strike, but no agreement was reached. The NUJ general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, accused the BBC of “provoking” a strike over a handful of job losses, but the corporation said there were 100 posts for which compulsory redundancy was “regrettably unavoidable”. Stanistreet said the union offered a number of solutions to the dispute, adding that an offer from the conciliation service Acas for peace talks had not been taken up by BBC management. “There are so many people who want to leave the BBC that this could be resolved through negotiations. The NUJ has a long-standing policy of no compulsory redundancies, and it is clear that our members at the BBC are fully prepared to stand up for their colleagues under threat,” she said. “Jobs are being saved and created at management level, but journalists are losing theirs. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that BBC management wants thousands of its journalists to go on strike rather than settle the dispute. A BBC spokesman said: “We are disappointed that the NUJ is intending to strike and apologise to our audience for any disruption to services this may cause. “We have had to reduce the number of posts in World Service and BBC Monitoring by 387, following significant cuts to the central government grants that support these services. In a significant majority of cases we have been able to reach this through voluntary redundancy or redeployment. “However, there are in excess of 100 BBC posts for which compulsory redundancy is regrettably unavoidable, and this is our focus, regardless of whether staff are members of unions.” A further 24-hour strike is due to take place on 29 July. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . BBC BBC1 Television industry Radio 4 Radio industry National Union of Journalists Media unions Jason Deans guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 15, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.