The British Broadcasting Corp. is cutting 2,000 jobs in a drive to reduce costs. Director General Mark Thompson said on Thursday that the plan to cut costs by 20 per cent over five years means “stretching efficiencies and significant job losses.”
BBC managers were meeting staff in offices across the country to explain how the cuts will affect the company’s 22,900 employees.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of the technicians’ union, accused the corporation of “destroying jobs, and destroying the BBC.”
The government has frozen the license fee paid by households that funds the BBC and also has given the corporation responsibility for funding the World Service, which is now funded by the government’s Foreign Office.