All six party leaders in Northern Ireland today backed calls for Ulster Television to halt planned cutbacks.
Politicians said job cuts were in danger of taking place before meaningful discussions with management concluded.
Journalists have been offered voluntary redundancy, with station managers blaming the challenging economic environment and communications regulator Ofcom’s recent public service broadcasting proposals for the restructure.
The statement signed by First Minister Peter Robinson, deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as well as Sir Reg Empey (Ulster Unionists), Gerry Adams (Sinn Féin), Mark Durkan (SDLP), David Ford (Alliance) and Dawn Purvis (Progressive Unionists) said: “While still understanding of the economic pressures Ulster Television (UTV) finds itself under, we do think it reasonable to ask UTV to halt its plans to allow for those discussions to go ahead and also for the completion of the Ofcom consultation and final report.”
The company said its commitment to a sustainable level of high-quality production for Northern Ireland remained as strong as ever.
Ofcom has proposed that UTV’s news output may be cut from about five hours a week to four and that non-news output can be reduced from four hours to 90 minutes.
Changes will see the end of programmes such as UTV Lifeand the flagship current affairs programme Insight.
The statement added: “It [UTV] has sought meetings with political parties but its process may in fact mean that the cutbacks will have gone ahead before any meaningful discussions conclude.”
The leaders said there was a need for "a robust and varied media in Northern Ireland".
“It can be a vehicle for reflection, communication, investigation and analysis and has provided in its different forms a valuable role here over many turbulent years and can provide a similar role in years to come."
“Television has contributed greatly in this regard with a strong independent sector competing with the BBC.”
The National Union of Journalists welcomed the interest from politicians but said it was gravely concerned at the threat to jobs.
UTV managers have already briefed Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure Gregory Campbell and the chairman of the arts committee Barry McElduff on their plans and are meeting some of the political parties at Stormont tomorrow to discuss Ofcom’s proposals.
They will outline details to the committee on November 20th. The deadline for voluntary redundancies has been extended.
UTV managing director Michael Wilson said: “No-one is more committed to high quality regional production for Northern Ireland than UTV. We have a proven track record in this area which is second to none.
“We are currently in the process of consulting with our staff, regulator and elected representatives on our future programming proposals which guarantee first class news and current affairs coverage as well as a wide and diverse portfolio of regional programmes for our audience going forward, as we do now.
“We have always over-produced our production quota and it is most likely we will continue to over-deliver the types of programmes our audience most want.”
PA