QATAR / Al Jazeera to cut 500 jobs

The Qatari group Al Jazeera will soon make redundant 500 of its employees worldwide, including 300 at its headquarters in Doha.

In an announcement on March 27^th, Mostefa Souag, Al Jazeera’s acting managing director, explained these job cuts are designed to “optimize” the group’s productivity and allow it to “maintain its leading position”, assuring staff “that this is the right decision for our network’s long-term competitiveness.”

This means in the first half of this year the group will lose 1,200 employees, since Al Jazeera America, with 700 employees, is due to close permanently on April 30^th. Al Jazeera’s total work-force will thus shrink from 5,200 to 4,000.

According to Al Jazeera’s employees, Al Jazeera English is not affected by these cuts.

The announcement comes as for the first time in fifteen years Qatar faces a budget deficit in 2016, estimated at around €11 billion, due mainly to the falling price of oil.

Sources: Satellifax, Les Echos, Al Jazeera