Launched on 9 May 1993 by some 20 European public broadcasters and based in Lyon, France, Euronews broadcasts news in 15 languages all over the world.

The channel was bought in July 2022 by the Portuguese-based investment fund Alpac Capital and announced, on 2 March, its third redundancy plan in six years, cutting "two thirds of the journalists, the entire broadcasting department, the production department and the editorial planning department" as well as reducing "the number of journalists in all languages and some other departments", said the French National Union of Journalists (SNJ) in a statement.

The management has told employees that this is a "transformation plan" which aims to "redeploy" the company in Brussels and in the capitals of several countries, with Euronews planning to create 100 posts in Brussels and 50 posts in various European capitals.

All filming and magazine production activities will also be outsourced.

In a press release published on 9 May, Euronews employees have expressed their concern about the management's silence on the new direction of their group.

"Despite several calls for help at European and national level, few answers have been given so far," they said, criticising European and national representatives for not taking a stand on the future of the public service media.

"The defence of a public service mission around information in Europe has always remained at the centre of its editorial line," say Euronews employees.

Dominique Pradalie, the President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said: “Euronews plays an essential role in the construction of Europe, through the quality of its coverage, but also its editorial independence. It is the duty of the public authorities to support a channel that helps citizens understand the challenges of European integration and make informed decisions. We are extremely concerned about the scale of the redundancies, the lack of guarantees for redeployment and the future of a channel that is trampling on its own raison d'être. We call on the European authorities, guarantors of public service broadcasting, to live up to their responsibilities”

Euronews employees are launching a solemn appeal to European leaders, Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission to defend the independence of the channel and safeguard jobs.

A rally is scheduled on 9 May from 1pm in front of the Euronews headquarters in Lyon, at 56 quai Rambaud.