LONDON: British Broadcasting Corporation's journalists walked off the job on Monday in a 24-hour strike to protest job cuts.
Staff mounted picket lines outside of the BBC’s studios in central London and around the country. Programs went on, but many shows were canceled, including the flagship morning news radio program “Today.”
National Union of Journalists general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said poor decisions by the BBC leadership were leading to quality journalism being compromised. The union says 2,000 jobs are at risk in BBC cost-cutting. Many will be eliminated through attrition, but about 30 jobs are targeted for compulsory layoffs.
The union said members across the BBC, including the World Service, are at risk of compulsory redundancy.
The BBC said in a statement that it was disappointed by the union’s actions. It said it had no choice but to meet savings targets that will require job cuts.
The BBC is funded mainly by a mandatory 145.50 pounds ($228) annual levy on all households with color TVs. Britain’s government froze the fee in 2010, and the corporation has been forced to make cuts.
BBC journalists go on strike over job cuts
BBC journalists go on strike over job cuts
UN chief Guterres warns ‘powerful forces’ undermining global ties
- Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations
- He said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN“
LONDON: UN chief Antonio Guterres Saturday deplored a host of “powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation” in a London speech marking the 80th anniversary of the first UN General Assembly.
Guterres, whose term as secretary-general ends on December 31 this year, delivered the warning at the Methodist Central Hall in London, where representatives from 51 countries met on January 10, 1946, for the General Assembly’s first session.
They met in London because the UN headquarters in New York had not yet been built.
Guterres paid tribute to Britain for its decisive role in the creation of the United Nations and for continuing to champion it.
But he said 2025 had been a “profoundly challenging year for international cooperation and the values of the UN.”
“We see powerful forces lining up to undermine global cooperation,” he said, adding: “Despite these rough seas, we sail ahead.”
Guterres cited a new treaty on marine biological diversity as an example of continued progress.
The treaty establishes the first legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of marine diversity in the two-thirds of oceans beyond national limits.
“These quiet victories of international cooperation — the wars prevented, the famine averted, the vital treaties secured — do not always make the headlines,” he said.
“Yet they are real. And they matter.”
