Australia’s public broadcaster hit by 24-hour staff walkout

Journalists and staff walk out of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) headquarters in Melbourne today as they start a 24-hour strike. Photo / William West, AFP

Hundreds of journalists went on strike Wednesday at Australia’s main public broadcaster, demanding better pay and protections to stop artificial intelligence taking their jobs.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation was forced to replace live programming with pre-recorded shows after more than 2000 journalists and staff called a 24-hour strike.

It is the first major strike to hit the broadcaster in about 20 years.

“ABC staff don’t want to strike, they want to do their jobs,” the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said in a statement.

“They want fair pay, secure work and guardrails around the use of technologies like AI to protect editorial integrity and public trust.”

Union members voted this month to reject a pay offer they said would fall below inflation.

Falling advertising revenues and the rise of social media have fuelled repeated rounds of job cuts across Australia’s media.

– Agence France-Presse