5 feminine BBC information presenters have been off the air, on full pay, since March 2023, when BBC Information Channel merged with BBC World Information and dozens of roles have been axed. Since then, the broadcaster has struggled to search out new roles for the 5, whereas the axing of the presenters, all feminine and skilled, has grow to be one thing of a PR catastrophe.
Now The Instances experiences that the broadcaster plans to offer all 5 presenters on-screen roles once more within the coming months. The 5 girls are Martine Croxall, Karin Giannone, Geeta Guru-Murthy, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh – they’re at present employed with out job titles.
The Instances quotes one insider predicting that “the BBC would carry out a ‘reverse ferret’ to keep away from any authorized hassle with the ladies, who’ve greater than 100 years of expertise on the company between them. The paper provides that, collectively, they are going to have been paid lots of of hundreds of kilos over the previous 9 months, at a time when the BBC is searching for to chop prices.
The insider instructed the paper: “They’re all litigious and the Nationwide Union of Journalists will again them. Plus, the BBC is in need of presenters so there aren’t any grounds to make them redundant. And so they’re all able to doing the function. A reverse ferret is certainly the very best plan.”
The approaching 12 months is predicted to be costly for BBC Information, with protection required for a forthcoming Common Election, the Olympics and ongoing protection of battle in Ukraine and the Center East. Such expenditure comes because the licence price, the BBC’s fundamental supply of revenue, continues to be frozen at £159 a 12 months.
