Friday 4 September 2009

NUJ in post card protest over top slicing

The NUJ is joining with other media unions and distributing thousands of post cards for people to send to the government to protest at any moves to top slice the BBC licence fee to fund local news by commercial companies.
The union claims: "Top slicing would cut the budget for the Corporation’s output and put public money in the hands of profit-hungry shareholders rather than programme makers."
Jeremy Dear, NUJ general secretary, said: “We have research that shows levies on telecom and internet companies that re-broadcast editorial content without paying for it could support commercial news programmes.
“Cutting BBC budgets to bolster the profits of companies that are currently slashing and burning the rest of the media is not the way to improve the flow of information and comment to the citizens of the UK.”
The campaign against top slicing will include events at forthcoming party conferences and a lobby of parliament on Wednesday 14 October.
The postcards are being sent out to trade union branches all over the UK.

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