CCTV has said it is cutting salaries across the board by 30%, and it may fall further in the future, reports iFeng.

While no official announcement has been made, iFeng has verified this news through a number of sources. CCTV employees have been directed not to disclose anything to the public. No reason for the drop has been given.

An unidentified employee of CCTV was quoted as saying:

Many colleagues have already prepared to leave their jobs. As well, the work morale is not high around here… Our salaries are already not very high. This demotion of our salaries is less than pathetic.

One high-profile staff member to leave is CCTV news anchor James Chau, who resigned his role as a prominent anchor of English-language broadcasts on Sunday night. It’s not clear if his resignation is related to the salary cut.

The disciplinary committee of the Chinese Communist Party has also reportedly set up a group to investigate the station two months ago.

Investigations are underway into a number of CCTV staff including famous hosts like Rui Chenggang and Ye Yingchun, CCTV Finance commissioner Guo Zhenxi, former CCTV Finance Deputy commissioner Li Yong, and CCTV documentary managers including Liu Wen.

Photo: xkyn