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| The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal New Brunswick Monday, May 21, 2001 page A3 Radio-Canada staff in Sackville will escape latest cuts: official LISA POIRIER Telegraph-Journal Radio-Canada International (RCI) staff in Sackville will not be affected by budget cuts to the service announced last week. The cuts will only affect programming, while the Sackville operations are strictly technical services, said an RCI official. RCI broadcasts on shortwave radio in seven different languages around the world, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, Ukrainian and Russian as well as English and French newscasts tailored to explain Canadian news to an international non-Canadian audience. André Beaudet, RCI's director of communications, said budget cuts of $1.5 million are necessary to prevent a deficit next year. "We will abandon weekend production in foreign languages. The programming will be produced during the week," he said. There are 23 employees in Sackville who look after transmission equipement for RCI. Mr. Beaudet said they would not be affected by the cuts. The cuts will affect programming and all of the programming is done out of Montreal. Strong opposition to the cuts is being voiced by two organizations, the RCI action committee and Canadian International DX Club. The latter group issued a news release saying the cuts are not necessary in light of the injection of an additional $60 million into the CBC. "Separate, dedicated funding for RCI is in place to the tune of $15.52 million per year. The CBC is responsible for the operations of RCI, but draws payment from the RCI funds for services which it performs for RCI," said Sheldon Harvey, president of the Canadian International DX Club. Mr. Sheldon said the cuts mean the end of weekend in-house-produced news broadcasts. Wojtek Gwiazda, a representative of the RCI Action Committee, fears the cuts are just the tip of the iceberg. He said his organization has called for a moratorium on cuts, at least until the organization has a chance to review its role in discussion with Heritage Canada. "They have the money for this year, so why are they insisting on making the cuts now?" asked Mr. Gwiazda, who is a producer for Radio-Canada InternationaI. He said two recent stories that would not have been covered if RCI staff were absent on weekend. On was the first official visit to Canada of Russion President Vladimir Putin and the other was the story of the Russian diplomat who killed an Ottawa woman and injured another in a car accident. "Staffers feel that when program content drops below a certain level, the whole exercise becomes ineffective," Mr. Gwiazda said. Reach our reporter tjcamp@nb.aibn.com Return to RCI and Media |