Broadcaster Al-Jazeera said on Sunday that it is to shed around 500 jobs, most of them at its Qatar headquarters, as part of a "workforce optimisation initiative".

Al-Jazeera said that after a management review it was "expected that around 500 positions worldwide will be impacted, the majority of which are in Qatar".

According to one Al-Jazeera manager, up to 60 percent of the job cuts - 300 positions -- could come at the broadcaster's Doha base.