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VETERAN: BBC journalist Kurt Barling, also a professor at Middlesex University, collects an award from colleague Reeta Chakrabarti and comedienne Jo Brand at the 2006 Race In The Media Awards

BLACK JOURNALISTS at the BBC claim they are being unfairly targeted in cuts and are standing behind an Operation Black Vote (OBV) petition which has been sent to the corporation’s bosses urging them to tackle diversity.

It follows a report by The Voice in February, which revealed plans to cut the organisation’s only full-time specialist journalist, employed to focus on local radio programming for African and Caribbean communities from its news hub, BBC UK Black.

Concerns about diversity were further fuelled by the BBC’s decision to sack prominent special correspondent Kurt Barling, who had been with the corporation for more than 24 years.

OBV Director Simon Woolley described the situation as “troubling”.  He added: “Not least following with the decision to get rid of their most senior black TV correspondent Kurt Barling.

“In the media, in politics, and the criminal justice system, black people are getting kicked around.  It's time for us to politically hit back.”

An inside source described an atmosphere of discontent and insecurity among black journalists in the organisation.

 In 2001, the BBC’s then director-general, Greg Dyke, described it as “hideously white".

The source branded bosses commitment to diversity as “lip service”, and accused the organisation – funded through the TV Licence fee – of going backwards.

“They say that they care about diversity and yet they are unwilling to budge on this one job servicing black British communities.

“There are some floors where only one person, other than the cleaner, is black. In 2014, that is insane. I don’t think the BBC reflects modern Britain in any shape or form and not just in the newsroom, I think if you look at senior management it is a joke.

“And now we have cuts which seem to me to be affecting black journalists more than they are affecting anyone else,” the source added.

The OBV petition signed by former BBC director Pat Younge and politicians Diane Abbott, David Lammy and Baroness Ros Howells raised “concerns” about the planned cuts.

It reads: “It is our view that this will represent a serious deficit in the BBC’s ability to effectively cover socioeconomic, cultural and political issues regarding black communities throughout the UK.”

The petition also raised the issue of reassuring black licence fee-payers that their money “is being spent in their interests.”

The Voice’s managing director and editor George Ruddock, who also signed the petition, said the cuts “smacks of a wider plan to do away with black-focus programmes altogether.”

He said: “First there was the move to pull all the regional black talk shows under one time slot, one day per week on Sunday nights. Then shortly afterwards we saw the inexplicable scrapping of the weekly UK Black’s podcast, which highlights the best of the week’s material.

“Now with the planned cull of the one remaining specialist journalist post, down from 12 back in 1997, this surely signals the inevitable phasing out of black radio shows. This cannot be by coincidence and something more sinister is at play. The BBC needs to tell its black licence payers what is going on.”

Critics hope the petition will open a wider debate on diversity in the media.  Last month, veteran broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald warned of an “apartheid-style” division in the media.

He said: “I am not sure how long a television station, a profession, can go on if it does not constantly represent the mix of the community. I don't see how you can have a kind of almost apartheid sort of division."

David Holdsworth, controller of BBC English Regions, told The Voice: “The BBC always strives to reflect the diversity of modern Britain through our output and across our workforce.

“Although one post has been lost in our central local radio team, this is more than outweighed by investments in how we report on the interests of black communities and develop presenters and reporters from minority backgrounds.”