Re: [Swprograms] Radio Australia first up for job cuts as ABC restructures | The Australian

[Daniel Say <say@xxxxxx>]

> Thanks Richard, is there a way I can get past the newspaper subscription requirement to read this article?
> 
> Mike

   Using Google news gets around the paywall

   Also see Sydney Morning Herald and 
their sister paper The (Melbourne) Age.


Radio Australia first up for job cuts as ABC restructures  
|
 The Australian  |
 July 14, 2014 12:00AM 

Michael Bodey

Media and Entertainment Writer
Sydney


 THE ABC will confirm a wave of job cuts today, with Radio Australia.s services the first major victim.  
  
A management proposal for a new .converged service. for its international broadcasting outlets will be outlined to staff today as the ABC rearranges its overseas obligations after the axing of the Australia Network television service.

Staff at Radio Australia fear tens of jobs will go from it and the Australia Network, and they expect a number of its services within the region to be abandoned as the public broadcaster.s $35 million annual budget for international broadcasting, which was a combination of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.s $20m annual budget for the Australia Network and RA.s $15m, contracts to approximately $15m.

These job cuts will be on top of a number of redundancies for Australia Network staff and the closing of its transmission in September, after only one year of its 10-year contract with DFAT to deliver the service.

Radio Australia will feel the squeeze as ongoing funding for TV.s international obligations are grabbed from the ABC.s international radio and online service. A number of RA.s language services are expected to be axed.

The ABC News 24 channel is expected to become the foundation of the international service, with some specialised news and current affairs content featuring on the service.

It is not known whether ABC News 24 will expand its broadcast reach through the Asia-Pacific region in lieu of Australia Network or whether the Radio Australia name will be subsumed.

The proposal outlined today in Melbourne by the director of news, Kate Torney, and ABC International director Lynley Marshall is not definitive but will begin what is anticipated to be a long process of negotiations and politicking over job losses and service cuts.

The process is complicated by the fact that DFAT is yet to finalise the terms of the decommissioning of the Australia Network service in September, including the allocation of money for redundant staff and outstanding contracts.

The ABC Charter requires the public broadcaster to .transmit to countries outside Australia, broadcasting programs of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment. that will, in part, .encourage awareness of Australia and an inter-national understanding of Australian attitudes on world -affairs..

While the efficacy of the Australia Network was questioned before its axing by DFAT under the Abbott government, the impact of Radio Australia.s service during times of political crisis in the Pacific region has been substantial.

Even so, the recent efficiency review of the ABC and SBS overseen by Peter Lewis recommended Radio Australia discontinue its shortwave service.

This recommendation came despite advice from DFAT that shortwave delivery is the only current source of RA in .some sensitive areas in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea..

The public broadcaster has already confirmed a number of its news and current affairs foreign bureaus will be affected by the closure of the Australia Network service which cross-subsidised some of the news division.s international reporting shown on ABC News 24 while also employing its own correspondents.

The union representing ABC staff, the Commonwealth Public Sector Union, was yet to be notified of the proposal by Friday and expected to be briefed today.

Radio Australia and ABC management would not comment on the proposed changes.

The international cuts come as the ABC and SBS work through the recommendations of the recent efficiency review, including the notion to co-locate the ABC and SBS. It appears that will not happen in Sydney although a possible move by SBS into the ABC.s new Southbank office in Melbourne has gained favour.

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQqQIwBA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au%2Fentertainment%2Ftv-and-radio%2Feighty-jobs-to-go-at-abc-news-and-australia-network-20140714-zt6t8.html&ei=oBfEU7TPCpTAoAT2koGoBQ&usg=AFQjCNGjwh-ytPTpSFAKiMtzT08ZpfuSTw&bvm=bv.70810081,d.cGU 
	 
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