BBC
BBC

BBC presenters threw TV and radio schedules into chaos by walking out of studios on strike today.

Flagship Radio 4 show the Today programme was pulled off air and replaced by repeats this morning.

On television, just one reporter presented a scant BBC Breakfast programme. Viewers tuning in were faced with repeats of Cash in the Attic and Escape to the Country.

Set to continue for 24 hours, the strike is part of a wider row over plans to cut 2,000 jobs across the Corporation over the next five years.

Plans to "redeploy" 30 members of staff slated for redundancy triggered the latest walkout, with picket lines springing up outside BBC offices in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff.

The walkout was backed by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), which demanded that the redundancy programme be deferred for six months so negotiations can take place with the BBC's incoming director-general Tony Hall, who takes up his new role in April.

NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said: "Instead of making sure that the redeployment process works properly in all areas of the BBC, managers are prepared to waste public money on needless redundancies and sacrifice the livelihoods of experienced and talented journalists, at the same time as advertising other jobs externally.

"NUJ members across the BBC are taking action to defend jobs and quality journalism at the corporation. 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."

The BBC announced it was "disappointed" by strike action.

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."

The NUJ claimed 7,000 jobs at the BBC had gone since 2004 due to cost-cutting schemes by managers. Critics regularly accuse Corporation chiefs of failing to trim bureaucracy and red tape, while cutting staff for programmes.

London