BBC NI staff take to the picket lines as coverage is impacted due to strike action over cutbacks and restructuring of services

As the polls were counted for the local elections across the Province, BBC NI staff took to the picket lines as they opposed cutbacks to Radio Foyle's morning show, as well as restructuring of services in Northern Ireland, which includes reallocation of funds to digital services.

Radio Foyle’s flagship morning show was axed last month and replaced with a half-hour news programme.

The 24-hour strike saw several flagship programmes including BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster and The Nolan Show go off air as more than 200 journalists took part in the walkout.

There were also no local news bulletins on Radio Ulster until 9am on Friday, which was read by Adam Smyth, director of BBC Northern Ireland.

Images of striking BBC staff outside Broadcasting House showed some of the most recognisable presenters, producers and reporters standing on the picket line, including Jayne McCormack, John Campbell, Sara Girvin and Darran Marshall.

Comprehensive coverage of the local government elections had been planned, including a live feed with the latest results on social media accounts, and BBC Radio Ulster's live results programme to be streamed on the BBC News NI website. Non news programmes on Radio Ulster were also off air.

Seamus Dooley, assistant general secretary for the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) visited the picket line at the BBC base.

He said: “Our members across the BBC in Northern Ireland are on strike and they’re on strike when they should be covering the election results.

“That’s not something journalists like to do. Election day is Christmas for political junkies and we also have a responsibility to bring the news to the community across Northern Ireland.

“It’s a measure of how seriously our members take threats to funding in the BBC and our concern at the diminution of local news that we are on strike when we should be reporting the news, rather than making the news.”

Mr Dooley said it was unfortunate that industrial action cannot be taken without having an impact on the public.

“But in a way what this illustrates is the importance of well-resourced independent public service broadcasting, and we believe that the BBC plans across the UK undermine community-based public service broadcasting,” he added.

“We have full sympathy for the public but we know from the reaction that we are getting that the public understand that some of the plans for the BBC would undermine the very essence of public service broadcasting."

Election coverage is due to resume on Saturday following the strike action, which began at 12.15am on Friday.

A BBC spokesperson said: "We very much regret the impact which industrial action had on BBC services. This is something that we worked hard to avoid and have tried to mitigate.

"We’ve had constructive engagement with the NUJ and expect this to continue as we seek to resolve the outstanding issues between us.

"BBC coverage of the local Council election results will resume on May 20 and we know how much this is valued by audiences."