Massive job cuts at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) is cutting 382 jobs. On Wednesday, 205 employees of the public broadcasting group were given notice of termination.
A further 64 agreed severance payments with the company, 87 positions were given new tasks or expiring temporary contracts were not extended, and 26 management positions have already been eliminated. In response to the mass layoffs, numerous unionized employees in several regions of Denmark walked off the job.
The redundancies are part of an extensive savings program. The aim is to save the equivalent of a good CHF 60 million per year by 2021. One of the reasons for this is a new framework agreement for public service broadcasting that was pushed through parliament by the conservative government. This provides for a budget cut of 20 percent.
In a statement, the Danish Journalists' Association spoke of a black day for the country. Instead of strengthening Danish media and reporting, the government, together with the right-wing populist Danish People's Party, had decided to put obstacles in their way.
The savings will not only lead to severe cuts in personnel. The program will also be greatly reduced - for example, sports reporting. Daily sports news will be cut back. No new broadcasting rights are to be purchased for major sporting events such as the Tour de France or the Champions League once the current contracts expire. Savings will also be made in the areas of entertainment and fiction. DR will also take three of six television channels off the air in the coming years, two of which will continue to run as online streams. Three of eight radio programs will be discontinued. (SDA)
