60 jobs due to be axed in the Arabic section of the BBC World Service

Some of the 60 jobs due to be axed in the Arabic section of the BBC World Service may be saved, director Peter Horrocks said yesterday.

Horrocks told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee yesterday that the Arabic-speaking journalists had done a “fantastic job” in reporting the uprisings in the Arab world. “We maybe able to alter some of these job losses,” he said.

According to the World Service director, any reduction in job losses at the broadcaster’s Arabic service would be based in part on securing outside funding from organizations including the Department for International Development.

“These 30 million people are 30 million regrets, but we have to make the books add up.”

The World Service director added that the BBC is due to make an announcement soon on “circumvention technology”, which would allow the broadcaster’s websites to get around internet firewalls such as China’s.

From: journalism