60 Persons Lose Jobs at RÚV (Icelandic National Broadcaster)

Sixty people will lose their jobs at RÚV, Iceland’s National Broadcaster, in cost cutting measures, as announced yesterday morning. Thirty-nine people have already received notice. Ríkisútvarpið, RÚV (english: "The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service") is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization.

Minister of Finance Bjarni Benediktsson said during question time in parliament yesterday that his thoughts were with those who had lost their jobs but that RÚV is “like any other government institution, indeed we are talking here about a public limited company in that costs need to be rationalized.”

Head of the Association of Broadcast Journalists Hallgrímur Indriðason told visir.is that the broadcaster had gone through three such layoffs since 2008 but that people had hoped that such cuts had come to an end.

Director of RÚV, Páll Magnússon, stressed that the station would continue to provide the best service possible. They will reduce annual operating needs by 500 ISK million.

Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the country, the service broadcasts a variety of general programming to a wide audience across the whole country via radio channels Rás 1 and Rás 2, and one television channel.

Source: Icelandreview
Iceland24, November 2013