BBC orders pay rises for World Service journalists

The BBC has ordered immediate pay rises for World Service journalists after an internal audit found that they were paid less than their colleagues in the news department.

The salary rises were announced yesterday, and will be backdated until Aug 1. The move will see the median salary of off-air staff at World Service and BBC Monitoring, which tracks and reports on media worldwide, aligned with that of BBC Network News. The cost, which is not known, will be covered by the licence fee.

The pay differences were because World Service and Monitoring operated separately from BBC News and were funded by the Government.