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| BBC presenter Jeremy Vine leaves Broadcasting House in London, Britain |
Four of the highest paid male BBC journalists have agreed to pay cuts, the broadcaster said on Friday, following revelations that its top male news reporters and presenters were earning significantly more than women doing similar jobs.
Radio broadcasters Jeremy Vine and John Humphrys, news anchor Huw Edwards and North America editor Jon Sopel had all agreed either formally or in principle to salary cuts, the BBC said on its website.
The broadcaster was forced to disclose last year that two thirds of the highest earners on air were men.
Funded by a licence fee levied on TV viewers, the BBC is closely scrutinised and held to exacting standards by the public and rival media. The pay disclosures, which it had resisted, highlighted a broader debate about gender inequality.
Director-General Tony Hall pledged to close the gender pay gap by 2020, but the organisation has been criticised by its own journalists and by lawmakers for not acting fast enough.
Its China editor Carrie Gracie, who was paid significantly less than her male counterparts, resigned her role last month to fight against what she called the โsecretive and illegal BBC pay cultureโ.
North America editor Sopel, one of the four who had agreed to a salary cut, earned between ยฃ200,000 and ยฃ249,999 ($285,100-$356,373) in 2016/17, the disclosures showed.
Gracie said she was paid ยฃ135,000 a year as China editor.
The highest paid of the four was Jeremy Vine, who earned between ยฃ700,000 and ยฃ749,999 for radio and TV work. Today radio programme presenter Humphrys earned between ยฃ600,000 and ยฃ649,999 while news anchor Edwards was paid between ยฃ550,000 and ยฃ599,999 .
The BBC said the level of the cuts was not yet known.
Tony Hall and Carrie Gracie will be questioned by a committee of lawmakers on Wednesday about BBC pay.
