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Following the announcement of giant cuts to the BBC World Service, with many employees being requested to relocate abroad, journalists have mentioned plans to maneuver the Vietnamese service to Thailand will pose risks to press freedom.
The Guardian stories a number of reporters elevating issues that there’s historical past of the Vietnamese state abducting journalists from Thailand – and that the BBC had not recognised that Vietnamese folks don’t routinely really feel at house in Thailand, regardless of each being south-east Asian international locations.
One World Service worker instructed the Guardian: “Being a critic of the Vietnamese authorities, even whenever you’re in Thailand, will not be protected.”
A lot of the BBC’s Vietnamese-language employees have beforehand operated out of London, because of the oppression of press freedom in Vietnam.
A BBC spokesperson instructed the Guardian: “The security and safety of our journalists is paramount. We aren’t proposing to open any new operations in Bangkok – for various years the Vietnamese service has been cut up between Bangkok and London, with half of the journalists based mostly in Bangkok and half in London, all producing wonderful and neutral journalism.”
This anxiousness comes after the BBC introduced the transfer – first printed on Deadline – as a part of a £30M ($32.7M) World Service financial savings drive, will see seven extra language companies transferring to digital solely, the closure of BBC Arabic radio and BBC Persian radio and the ending of some TV and radio applications.
Greater than half of the 41 language companies will grow to be digital as soon as the proposals have been carried out, and the BBC has confirmed the relocation of a few of its World Service journalists away from the UK. Round 380 jobs will likely be misplaced.
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