The BBC has axed investigative journalism show HARDtalk after nearly 30 years as part of a 130-person layoff program in its news division.
The news has emerged as part of the wider 500-person-layoff program that was announced earlier this year by Director General Tim Davie, as the corporation grapples with a deficit of £500M ($654M) amid tricky economic headwinds.
Davie delivered a speech yesterday in which he urged more government funding for global news, as he warned that Russia and China are filling gaps vacated by the World Service with “unchallenged propaganda.” The closure of HARDtalk, which will happen in five months, is part of the latest round of cuts to the hard-hit BBC News teams, which news boss Deborah Turness said today will “help meet the BBC’s savings and reinvestment challenge” in an internal email sent out in the past hour.
An all-staff meeting led by Turness is currently taking place. HARDtalk launched in 1997 and is hosted by Stephen Sackur, who tweeted today that the move is “depressing news for the BBC” for a show that stresses the “importance of independent, rigorous deeply-researched journalism.” He pointed to interviews with the likes of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Hugo Chavez and Emmanuel Macron from down the years.
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