Flagship shows cancelled as BBC journalists strike

London, Feb 18 (AFP) BBC journalists staged a 24-hour strike today in protest at job cuts, preventing the transmission of the flagship Today morning news programme and several other television and radio shows. Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) walked out at midnight (local time and GMT) yesterday over compulsory redundancies expected to affect BBC Scotland, Radio 5 Live, the Asian Network and the World Service. The strike was called at the world's biggest broadcaster after union leaders and managers failed to agree the redeployment of 30 staff facing the axe. Picket lines were set up outside studios across the country as Radio 4's flagship news shows Today, World at One at lunchtime and PM in the afternoon, and television's BBC Breakfast, were replaced by pre-recorded shows. The NUJ claims the British Broadcasting Corporation has lost more than 7,000 jobs since 2004 and it plans to cut a further 2,000 jobs as it slashes its budget by 20 per cent. The budget cuts are being driven by a fall in the revenue the corporation gets from the licence fee, which is paid by everyone in Britain with a television. The licence fee is currently USD 225. NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said her members were striking "to defend jobs and quality journalism at the corporation", saying they want talks to resume over the redundancies as well as a moratorium on job cuts until April. "They are angry and frustrated at the poor decisions being taken at the top of the BBC -- decisions that are leading to journalists being forced out of their jobs and quality journalism and programming compromised," she said. The strike comes as the BBC struggles to restore order in its ranks following the crisis over child sex abuse allegations against the late presenter Jimmy Savile, which exposed infighting and chaos at every level of the corporation. In a statement, the BBC apologised for today's disruption. "We are disappointed that the NUJ has gone ahead with today's strike and apologise to our audience for the disruption to services," a spokesman said. "Unfortunately industrial action does not alter the fact that the BBC has significant savings targets and as a consequence may have to make a number of compulsory redundancies. "We have made considerable progress in reducing the need for compulsory redundancies through volunteers, redeployment and cancelling vacant positions and we will continue with these efforts." (AFP) SAI 02190042 NNNN