Sydney (AFP)
The Australian public audiovisual group ABC announced on Wednesday the loss of 250 jobs due to the decline in state funding, linked to the efforts of the Conservative government to reduce public spending.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which is regularly criticized by elected conservative politicians and the media of News Corp's Rupert Murdoch group, is seeking to drastically cut costs because of the drop in revenue.
"We plan to part with this 250-person process," said group chief executive David Anderson when he presented a five-year restructuring plan.
With just over 4,600 employees, ABC has several radio and television stations and is present throughout Australia. Opinion polls point to it as the media that Australians trust the most.
Anderson said the layoffs were inevitable due to a group budget cut of 84 million Australian dollars (51 million euros) over three years.
On its website, ABC specifies that its annual turnover amounts to 879 million euros.
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the restructuring was necessary to allow the group to adapt to the changing media landscape.
The latter has been affected in recent times by numerous restructurings, a situation which has been further aggravated by the coronavirus.
The only Australian national press agency, Australian Associated Press (AAP), has narrowly escaped outright disappearance, but will part with half of its 180 employees.
At the end of May, News Corp announced that it would stop printing more than 100 local and regional press titles in Australia due to a collapse in advertising revenue.
Unions, however, saw cut in government grants as ideological measure to undermine ABC independence
"The coalition government’s war against ABC (...) is nothing more than an act of vandalism against one of Australia’s favorite public institutions," said Paul Murphy, chief executive of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
© 2020 AFP