RFI wants to save €5.5M for development

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly

Currently negotiating its 2009-2013 business plan with French State, international radio RFI, and part of holding Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France, is planning to save €5.5m each year for new developments.

The plans concern new forays into digital radio, multimedia, and broadcasting worldwide. RFI says it would like to strengthened foreign languages such as English, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Swahili.

While a budget has not yet been confirmed, RFI resources for 2009 amount to €139m including €132m from the French State.

For one month RFI staff have been on strike, protesting over the plan to make 206 employees redundant, as well as curtailing its coverage in several languages including German, Albanian and Turkish.