Cancellation of Ulster Program Protested : BBC Workers Strike Over Interference

An estimated 120 million listeners around the world tuned in to their favorite British Broadcasting Corp. radio news program today, only to hear music interspersed with a recorded notice of a 24-hour journalists’ strike.

It was the first time in its 53-year history that the BBC’s World Services had been silenced. The BBC’s domestic news broadcasts were also silenced by the walkout, held to protest alleged government interference with the BBC’s editorial independence.

“We are sorry that we are not able to bring you our usual programs. This is because many members of staff in the external services and throughout the BBC are striking for 24 hours,” the BBC began announcing at midnight.

Last month, BBC governors canceled a TV program on political extremism in strife-torn Northern Ireland after a request by Home Secretary Leon Brittan that it not be screened.

Journalists at the BBC and many of Britain’s other radio and TV networks reacted by calling the strike today, the day the program was to have aired.

On Tuesday, the 12 government-appointed governors denied having bowed to government pressure and asked for an urgent meeting with Brittan today to discuss “these serious matters relating to the total unacceptability of censorship.”

Virtually all TV and radio newscasts were canceled throughout Britain.

The blackout covered the English-language World Service and BBC broadcasts in 36 other languages ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese. The BBC says that together they are heard by a world audience of 120 million, including 14.5 million in the Soviet Union.

The Soviets are among those governments that jam BBC frequencies in an effort to blot out World Service reception.

BBC spokesman Richard McCarthy said that for the first time in many years, the Soviet Union stopped jamming the BBC shortly after the strike began. He said the Soviets apparently were taking advantage of the strike to save money on the expensive electronic jamming.

In Britain, music, travel information and weather reports substituted for normal hourly news bulletins on BBC.