Radio France Internationale

Radio France Internationale (RFI) was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France to serve as a broadcast vehicle for French Equatorial Africa. In 1986 a new law passed by the French Parliament allowed RFI to operate independently of Radio France.

RFI operates under the auspices and primary budget of the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. It broadcasts in various languages, including English, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Chinese and Spanish.

RFI's English service broadcasts for five and a half hours a day. Its website's music section has a collection of biographies in both the French and English languages.

On September 17, 2002, Togolese President Gnassingbé Eyadéma tried to stop the broadcasting of an interview with one of his opponents, Agbéyomé Kodjo, by phoning directly to the Elysée Palace. The interview was not censored by Jean-Paul Cluzel, RFI's CEO at the time, due to the coordinated intervention of the journalists' trade-unions. However, a report raising questions regarding the French secret services responsibilities in the 1995 death of judge Bernard Borrel in Djibouti, which was broadcast on May 17, 2005, was later removed from RFI's website for undisclosed reasons, possibly due to the intervention of Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh. [ cite news | title=Une « CNN à la française » - Parrain privé, chaîne publique | publisher=Le Monde Diplomatique | date=January 2006 | url=http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2006/01/BENILDE/13103 (also available in Persian [http://ir.mondediplo.com/article823.html here] ) ]

On 21 October 2003, Jean Hélène was reporting for RFI during the civil war in Ivory Coast when he was killed in Abidjan by police Sergeant Théodore Séry Dago.

A previous RFI English service presenter is CNN International's Owen Thomas.

Services

Radio France Internationale broadcasts mainly in French, but also offers a number of foreign language services. One of the largest foreign language services is the English Service, aimed mainly at Southern Africa and Kenya, but with programmes for the Middle East and South Asia as well. RFI broadcasts morning news, lunchtime, afternoon and early evening programmes:

0400 to 0430 GMT RFI News and Sport

0500 to 0530 GMT RFI News and Sport

0600 to 0630 GMT RFI News and Sport

0700 to 0730 GMT RFI News and Sport

0730 to 0800 GMT English language features programming

1200 to 1210 GMT RFI News

1210 to 1230 GMT English language features programming

1400 to 1430 GMT RFI News and Sport

1430 to 1500 GMT English language features programming

1600 to 1630 GMT RFI News and Sport

1630 to 1700 GMT English language features programming

1700 to 1730 GMT RFI News & African features

All of RFI's English broadcasts are available to listen online and for download on the English service web page at rfienglish.com

Transmission network

ALLISS is a rotatable antenna system for high power shortwave radio broadcasting.

RFI uses 2 domestic shortwave relay stations in France, and one shortwave relay station in French Guyana. All the stations are owned and operated by the French telecom entity TDF.
* All RFI transmitters are fairly universally 500 kW, but some 250 kW are used in French Guyana.
* The technology used by France's domestic SW relay stations is ALLISS at Issoudun (Indre).
* The TDF relay station in French Guyana uses standard HRS type antennas.
* ALLISS is a rotatable antenna system for high power shortwave radio broadcasting.

References

External links

* [http://www.rfi.fr/ RFI website]
*en [http://www.rfienglish.com English-speaking site]
* RFI [http://www.rfimusique.com/siteEn/accueil/index.asp English language Music section]
* RFI [http://www.rfimusique.com/siteEn/biographie/biographie_a.asp Music biographies in the English language]