TRADE union pickets are protesting outside BBC studios throughout today as journalists and production staff voice their opposition to proposed job cuts.

Among BBC sites to be targeted by strikers are those in Tunbridge Wells and Chatham, where staff with placards will mount pickets from 5am until 8pm.

Nationally, the BBC is proposing to axe 3,700 jobs, of which a dozen are likely to go at Tunbridge Wells over the next two years.

They include seven BBC Radio Kent employees, two from television news, two from the BBC website and one marketing employee.

The cuts are being opposed by the National Union of Journalists and the technicians' union, BECTU.