| RCI ACTION COMMITTEE Defending Radio Canada International - Canada's Voice to the World |
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| The following article was published in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper and refers to the difficult situation between RCI and our domestic radio and television service, the CBC - the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The Radio-Canada spokesman referred to in this article is not part of RCI, but part of the domestic service's French radio service Radio-Canada, which now manages RCI. Cuts `undermine' Radio Canada International Workers say: CBC brass doesn't understand mandate by Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen, page A6, 31 July 2001 Employees at Radio Canada International, who broadcast Canadian news and current affairs to millions of listeners abroad, say the world-renowned radio service is being undermined by a new team of CBC managers bent on slashing its programs. RCI-produced weekend newscasts have been scrapped, Russian and Ukrainian-language programming reduced, and more drastic cuts to live programming are expected soon. The employees have formed an ``action committee'' to lobby the federal government and opposition MPs. They also want to appear before the House of Commons heritage committee in the fall when it launches a massive examination of Canadian broadcasting. ``We want to stop the cuts that are coming and restore those already made,'' said committee spokesman Wojtek Gwiazda. ``We want to stop the erosion of RCI's mandate. The new administrators don't appear to understand our mandate, which is to explain to the world on a daily basis what Canada is about. We have already stopped doing that.'' RCI, which has been broadcasting for more than half a century, has traditionally been a separate service of the CBC/Radio-Canada main networks and is funded separately, with an annual $15.5 million from the federal Heritage department. Employees fear that a recent flurry of top management changes, and the integrating of some RCI functions with the main networks, constitutes the beginning of a total takeover by CBC/Radio-Canada. They also expect job losses and warn of a further watering down of the RCI service. ``RCI is Canada's voice and face to the outside world,'' said Mr. Gwiazda. ``For some people their first and sometimes only contact is with RCI. When you start cutting that you are sending a message to the world that Canada doesn't care about you. We are part of the reason why being Canadian abroad opens doors.'' RCI broadcasts in English, French, Russian, Arabic, Ukrainian, Chinese and Spanish. A decade ago, before its budget was cut by a third and half its staff laid off, the international service broadcast in 14 languages. About 100 employees now run RCI. ``The smallest change at RCI has a huge impact,'' said Mr. Gwiazda, ``because all cuts hit programming.'' The weekend newscasts, which used to be produced at RCI and tailored for foreign listeners, have been replaced by domestic newscasts from CBC and the corporation's French-language Radio-Canada. Mr. Gwiazda, who suspects all RCI-produced English- and French-language newscasts will eventually be axed, says news tailored for a domestic audience is inadequate and often lost on foreign listeners because it lacks necessary context. The committee wrote to Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and CBC president Robert Rabinovitch in May urging them to stop the cuts at RCI. After eight weeks, Ms. Copps's office replied, saying essentially that it was an internal CBC matter. Mr. Rabinovitch has not replied. Radio-Canada spokesman Andre Beaudet said the weekend newscasts had to be cut to prevent RCI being $1.5 million over budget at the end of the fiscal year in March. ``It is inevitable and understandable that people are anxious,'' he said, ``but our intent is not to cut RCI but to improve it.'' Mr. Beaudet rejected the claim that changes at RCI constitute a takeover. ``What we intend to do,'' he said, ``is to review all the processes within RCI so we can have a more efficient service.” Link to the website of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. An abridged version of this article appeared in National Post, a Toronto-based national newspaper. Other media coverage of the situation at RCI. |