Today the EFJ expressed its surprise and concern about the restructuring taking place at the public broadcaster of the Faroe Islands and called on management to launch a genuine dialogue with staff.

On Monday 19th November, employees ofKringvarp Føroya (the public service broadcaster in the Faroe Islands) were informed that major changes in operations were to be implemented without any process of information and consultation.

“Not only is there a plan to cut one third of staff  from 84 people to around 60, but the information came without warning nor contact between the management and the union,” deplored Jógvan H. Gardar, Deputy chairman of the Union of Journalists. 'Both employees and trade unions had called for information about the situation, but they were simply asked to wait until the management was 'ready''.

Immediately following the announcement a number of programmes were stopped, including those produced by freelancers.

"We are surprised and concerned, not only by the scale of the restructuring plan, but also by the behaviour of the management", said EFJ President Arne König. "We call on the management to open talks with the unions as soon as possible".

The situation at Kringvarp Føroya is unfortunately similar to many other public broadcasters in Europe: steady downsizing (from about 110 employees in 2007 to 84 employees today) and decreasing revenues based on a loosely regulated license-fee.

"We hope that this employment crisis will also raise awareness on the need for a strong, independent and sustainable public broadcaster in the Islands" added König.

The EFJ is the European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and represents about 310.000 journalists in over 30 countries.

For more information, please contact the EFJ at +32 2 235.2200