Some staff working in the SBS news & current affairs department are about to be made redundant.
SBS World News Australia has fallen victim to the ill effects of the chronic under funding that has plagued the broadcaster for more than a decade. Already operating with strained resources, the news department can take the strain no more.
In an email sent last week by the SBS Director of News & Current Affairs, staff were told the redundancies “will not be a hands-up exercise”. However the email went on to say that an effort would be made to give preferences to staff who expressed an interest — in taking redundancy. Precise numbers were not revealed although the email did state that the numbers “affected will be small”.
This week the SBS Director of Strategy and Communications, speaking on behalf of SBS, confirmed to SaveOurSBS.org that “there will be some redundancies in the news room”.
Asked if World News Australia would run shorter bulletins and SBS planned to sack half the news staff the spokesperson for SBS said “There is no truth to the story that we plan to cut news staff by half or that there is any plan to reduce the length of the news bulletin.”
SaveOurSBS.org was also told that part of the budgetary strain now effecting the news room, was because no specific funding had been made from government for the operation of SBS TWO.
Meanwhile SaveOurSBS.org continues to lobby government for greater funding and in a submission to the SBS Board in March this year, again raised the concern that pursing the commercial path has and will lead to a gradual downturn in government funding. The Board was strongly urged to abandon the disruption in programs for advertising as a first step towards regaining increased public support for greater funding and so that the broadcaster would appeal more favourably to those in government who are deeply offended by that practice — believing that SBS was never intended to operate along commercial lines to the current extent. Dependency on advertising is now taking its toll.
Some staff working in the SBS news & current affairs department are about to be made redundant.
SBS World News Australia has fallen victim to the ill effects of the chronic under funding that has plagued the broadcaster for more than a decade. Already operating with strained resources, the news department can take the strain no more.
In an email sent last week by the SBS Director of News & Current Affairs, staff were told the redundancies “will not be a hands-up exercise”. However the email went to say that an effort would be made to give preferences to staff who expressed an interest — in taking redundancy. Precise numbers were not revealed although the email did state that the numbers “affected will be small”.
This week the SBS Director of Strategy and Communications, speaking on behalf of SBS, confirmed to SaveOurSBS.org that “there will be some redundancies in the news room”.
Asked if World News Australia would run shorter bulletins and SBS planned to sack half the news staff the spokesperson for SBS said “There is no truth to the story that we plan to cut news staff by half or that there is any plan to reduce the length of the news bulletin.”
SaveOurSBS.org was also told that part of the budgetary strain now effecting the news room, was because no specific funding had been made from government for the operation of SBS TWO.
Meanwhile SaveOurSBS.org continues to lobby government for greater funding and in a submission to the SBS Board in March this year, again raised the concern that pursing the commercial path has and will lead to a gradual downturn in government funding. The Board was strongly urged to abandon the disruption in programs for advertising as a first step towards regaining increased public support for greater funding and so that the broadcaster would appeal more favourably to those in government who are deeply offended by that practice — believing that SBS was never intended to operate along commercial lines to the current extent. Dependency on advertising is now taking its toll.
