| RCI ACTION COMMITTEE Defending Radio Canada International - Canada's Voice to the World |
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| Background on the situation at Radio Austria International from Roland Machatschke, Managing Director Radio Austria International (ROI) ROI is an operation of ORF (Austrian Radio and Television), Austria’s only public broadcaster. The costs, in accordance with the Broadcasting Law, have to be borne by the federal government. Budget funds allocated to ROI used to be negotiated with the Prime Minister’s office on an annual basis. In the year 2000, the funding was reduced by almost 30 percent compared to 1999, without detailed negotiations. In the current year, 2001, the Republic of Austria is only providing roughly half of the funding it paid for its international broadcaster in 1999. For the year 2002 no further funding is planned. A new Broadcasting Law is to be passed by Parliament in July. By this law the task of financing ROI will be handed over to ORF. But according to the letter of the draft ORF will have no obligation to operate ROI. Should the ORF management (which almost certainly will be renewed together with the Law) decide that there is not enough money for an international radio programme they can shut down ROI at their discretion. Effects so far When the budget cuts for the year 2000 were announced in March 2000, modifications to the programming had to be hastily considered. The summer broadcast schedule (end of March to end of October 2000) had already been printed and distributed. It was hoped that our listeners would notice as little as possible the problems we faced. We did not want the necessary radical spending cuts to lead to radical cuts in our programming. Our broadcasts in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Esperanto remained unaffected. Instead, we cut back on our German-language programming by actually increasing the share of programmes taken from the domestic service of the ORF. This had already made up over 66 percent of the total broadcast time. In light of the fact that there were to be further cuts in funding for 200, it became necessary to take even more drastic steps for the winter broadcasting period 2000/2001. Budget Cut in Half Radio Austria International was forced to let go half of its roughly 100 regular staff and freelancers within the space of six months. Programming itself had to be changed to concentrate on the core responsibilities of an international broadcaster, namely news and current affairs. Thus all music programmes were discontinued, a decision not easily made by Austria's voice to the world, considering the fact Austria is regarded as the "land of music". All told, 26 of the 36 magazine programmes were cancelled along with all ROI produced news broadcasts and current affairs programmes with the exception of the "Oesterreich Journal", which is broadcast Monday thru Friday. The other language services have remained by and large unchanged, because with their 13 percent share of the entire programming it would have been difficult to make further cuts without endangering their very existence. However, in order to be able to offer ROI listeners an "Austrian programme" and so as not to relinquish the traditional broadcasting frequencies, it was decided to fill the gaps which became available with cultural and news programmes from ORF's domestic station "Oe1". Unfortunately, we have had to curtail some services to more distant target areas because of the high electricity costs involved. For that reason, instead of being on the air to overseas target areas for several hours a day, ROI can usually only be heard there for one hour daily. This was a very painful spending cut for us. Who Listens to ROI? Radio Austria International has more listeners than some of the critics here at home would want to lead us to believe. Letters and Internet visits are reliable indicators for an international broadcaster which cannot afford expensive market research. In 1999, we received approx. 35,000 letters, in other words almost one third more than in 1998. As far as page impressions on the Internet are concerned, we currently have an average of more than 430,000 hits per month. In 1998, the figure was around 70,000. Despite budget constraints, expansion of ROI's presence on the Internet will be continued and services improved. Radio Austria International in the Austrian media context In the age of satellite radio and the Internet, ROI faces growing competition. The ORF's domestic radio and television programmes can be received via satellite throughout Europe. People can read Austrian newspapers anywhere in the world on their personal computer, provided, of course, there is electricity and they have technical access to the Internet. That's not always the case. The small battery-operated short-wave world receiver is not only for travellers, but - in countries of the Third World - often the only contact people have with their home country. Short-wave is in the midst of a technical revolution: digitalization will bring a qualitative advance in audibility. For forty years now the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, through its international service, has provided information about Austria and its people, about culture and lifestyle, about Austrian political life and society. For forty years now Radio Austria International has provided a link between Austrian expatriates or former Austrians and Austria itself. It has been the voice of Austria abroad and the only Austrian broadcasting medium which has reported about our country in other languages as well (currently English, French ans Spanish daily, Arabic and Esperanto weekly). Radio Austria International is prepared for the challenges of the future. It is not a "sinking ship in the short-wave ocean" as the Vienna newspaper "Die Presse" chose to put it recently. Even though it has considerably less money to spend than the governments of neighbouring countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary allocate to their international radio programming, Radio Austria International is able to fulfil its core responsibilities. But there a great danger that the "ROI ship" will be sunk by outside forces. When half the crew is forced to leave the ship and when the engines are only permitted to run at half speed then there are limits even to our manoeuvrability. Roland Machatschke Managing Director See also Machatschke's letter of support of the RCI Action Committee. Radio Austria International website is at http://roi.orf.at |