London (PTI): Journalists from the Hindi, Urdu and Nepali sections of the BBC World Service will go on a one-day strike on Thursday to protest against plans that will allegedly lead to 34 job losses and offshoring editorial content to the Indian sub-continent.

The strike action will begin at 00.01 hours and will end at 23.59 hours the same day. Talks on the plans have been continuing for over a year between the BBC management and staff of the three South Asia divisions of the World Service.

BBC journalists from South Asia organised protests outside the Bush House here last year, and are now set to demonstrate outside the historic building on Thursday. Termed 'Save the BBC World Service' campaign, the strike has been supported by Britain's National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Broadcast Entertainment Cinema Theatre Union (BECTU).

Mike Gardner, BBC's Head of Media and Public Relations, told PTI that "BBC World Service is disappointed that members of the joint unions have voted to support industrial action and have not accepted the management's revised proposals for the restructure of BBC Hindi, BBC Nepalese, and BBC Urdu."