Radio France Internationale is French public radio station owned by France Médias Monde. This station broadcasts in Paris and all over the world.
History[]
In 1930, it was decided to create an audible station all over the world, at the request of the populations overseas and the French colonies.
On May 6, 1931, the radio station, Le Poste colonial, was launched during the international colonial exhibition in Paris for the 100 million listeners of the French colonial empire. It is broadcast on short waves via two 12 and 15 kW transmitters located in Pontoise on three frequencies for Africa, Asia and America. The programs are broadcast from the studio of the exhibition, in the Cité des informations, until in December, the station is installed at 98 bis boulevard Haussmann in Paris. It then broadcasts 13 to 24 hours of French-language daily programming as well as 15-minute information sequences in English and Spanish.
In 1933, radio became a means of propaganda, especially for the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler, who poured out his racist discourse throughout the world. France must reply in as many languages as possible. On 1 April 1935, a foreign-language program was set up for the French-speaking world. But the Popular Front, which came to power in 1936, has other priorities, notably social ones, than the development of radio, and is no longer sufficiently able to do so. Despite this, on March 23, 1938, a new more powerful transmitter of 25 kW is inaugurated at Les Essarts-le-Roi.
In April 1938, Le Poste colonial was renamed Paris-Mondial after having briefly called Paris Ondes Courtes. The studios are located in the Avenue de Ségur in Paris. In February 1939, a "permanent center of general information" was established under the authority of the Presidency of the Council, on which broadcasts of foreign languages on large-scale and medium-wave channels depend. On the eve of the Second World War, the radio spoke in 30 languages.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, prompting the United Kingdom and France to declare war, and thus triggered the Second World War. At the beginning of 1940, the radio broadcast in 21 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dekanian, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. On May 10, 1940, the Germans entered French territory, and on June 14, 1940, they occupied Paris. On 17 June 1940, Paris-Mondial broadcast Petain's speech calling for an end to the fight and demanding an armistice, and then the radio ceases broadcasting.
During the German occupation, France was divided in two, between the occupied zone to the north, under German rule, and the free zone to the south, under the authority of the Vichy regime. The latter will conduct a "war of waves" with the radios of the Allies, broadcast in French from abroad.
As early as July 18, 1940, the Propaganda-Abteilung Frankreich usurped the denomination of Radio-Paris to make it an instrument of Nazi propaganda in French. Radio broadcasts throughout Europe, North Africa and French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and French West Africa (AOF).
On 1 August 1941, the Vichy regime launched La Voix de la France, which was responsible for broadcasting to the colonies. In November 1942, the Allies landed in North Africa and took control of local radio stations. Vichy launched a new radio station called La France Fidèle, which broadcasts in French and Arabic to the region. Later, in April 1944, a third shortwave radio was created: Muslim France. It is responsible for broadcasting to the Muslim populations of North Africa and countering the Gaullist Radio-Alger.
The free France of General de Gaulle speaks first on the BBC in the program Radio Londres. On December 5, 1940, Radio Brazzaville began broadcasting from a transmitter of fortune. It later became more powerful transmitters and on June 18, 1943, Charles de Gaulle inaugurated it. On 22 June 1944, he signed an order to requisition all public and private radio stations.
On August 17, 1944, the Germans destroyed the transmitter of Allouis during their retirement, which prevents the diffusion of the French programs.
On January 1, 1945, the 100 kW Allouis transmitter was put back into service. Émissions vers l'étranger (EVE) service was created under the direction of Philippe Desjardins, appointed by General de Gaulle. The radio is broadcast on long waves and medium waves in 21 languages to 48 countries by three transmitters of 150 kW4,13. The German section is trying to demoralize the enemy troops while the Spanish section faces Franco, still in power. The North American section is relayed by American networks and has met with some success. On 23 March, Radiodifussion Nationale (RN) was replaced by Radiodifussion Française (RDF). At the end of the year, the radio employs nearly 300 people. The station no longer emits in Russian and Turkish, but adds Hungarian and Slovene and, in 1946, Finnish.
In 1946, General de Gaulle resigned as President of the Council, marking the end of the revival of the radio. On February 9, 1949, Radiodifussion Française (RDF) became Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF).
For three decades, the successive French governments will no longer put the necessary resources into external broadcasting. While it has some experience in this field, France will gradually be caught up by the other countries. In the 1960s, it will only occupy 17th place in the list of international radio stations.
During the Cold War, radio played an important role in the confrontation between the eastern bloc of the Soviet Union and the western bloc of the United States. In 1947, a so-called "ax commission" removed seven languages: Slovene, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and Romanian. The last three were re-established in 1949, and Italian and Dutch were abolished, 8 just as Esperanto was launched two years earlier. In 1951, emissions to the United States and Latin American countries were halted, and in 1954 it was the turn of those in Finnish. In 1956, during the Budapest insurrection, the volume of programs in Hungarian increased for a few weeks.
During the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962, programs were broadcast from Paris and Algiers in Arabic, Kabyle and French to cope with La Voix des Arabes and La Voix de l'Algerie libre issuing from Cairo. Given the importance of these programs, a specific branch is created under the name of Émissions en langues arabe et kabyle (ELAK) and broadcasting schedules are expanded.
During the crisis of May 1958, Charles de Gaulle returned to power. Some observers then hope to see a revival of external radio action but this is not the case. If a program in Yiddish was launched for Soviet Jews, it was not until October 1960, in the midst of the Berlin crisis, that the Russian was broadcast. The programs are presented by Russian immigrants from 1920 and adopt a diplomatic tone, as the Foreign Ministry does not want to participate in the radio battle between Anglo-Saxon and Soviet so as not to disrupt the fragile Franco-Soviet relations
At the beginning of 1962, the international activities of the RTF were grouped together in the Directorate of External Relations. In 1963, budgetary restrictions led to the abolition of Vietnamese programs launched in July 1961, to Germany and England, and to the reduction of programs for Spain. Moreover, following the independence of Algeria, the programs in Arabic and Kabyle are reduced.
In 1963, Édouard Balladur, then Master of Applications to the Council of State and adviser to the Director of the RTF, Robert Bordaz, was in charge of making an inventory of the external broadcasting of France. It recommends the creation of a permanent service in French and the construction of new transmitters. But the Department of Foreign Affairs still considers external broadcasting to be too expensive and nobody listens to it. In 1964, Émissions vers l'étranger (EVE) organized a survey called La Rose des Vents, the purpose of which was to test the effectiveness of available technical means. The operation is a success because more than 45,000 letters and a hundred sound recordings are received from more than 110 countries. Despite this, no stimulus plan is envisaged and the budget is still reduced.
After settling in the new Maison de la Radio on 14 December 1963, the RTF became Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF). In 1965, the Ministry of Labor financed the creation of foreign language programs for immigrant workers living in France: Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese in 1966, Arabs and Serbo-Croats in 1972, Turks in 1974, Francophone Africans in 1975, the Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese in 1976. During the student and worker revolt of May 1968, the ORTF trade unions complained of the political tutelage which made it difficult to cover events. Finally, on June 3, 1968, programs abroad went on strike. Subsequently, several dozen employees were sent back, transferred to the provinces, sent abroad or taken into early retirement.
On January 1, 1969, the ORTF Émissions vers l'étranger absorbed the OCORA Office de coopération radiophonique (formerly SORAFOM) and established Direction des Affaires Extérieures et de la Coopération (DAEC). However, the whole is heterogeneous and is placed under different tutelages: the programs and the cooperation activities are financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the programs for the immigrant workers are paid by the Ministry of Labor. At the same time, the Department of Foreign Affairs understands that it is possible to make better use of the transmitters without increasing production: the other French public stations will provide their programs to French external broadcasting. In September 1969, Bulgarian, Slovene and Portuguese are suppressed, while the volume in Russian and Romanian increases.
In 1972, the broadcasting of Arabic programs in the Middle East was transferred to Société Monégasque D'Exploitation, D'études et de Radiodiffusion (SOMERA), 55% controlled by RMC and 45% by the ORTF. That same year, France loses the possibility of using the relay of Radio Brazzaville, nationalized by the new power. The following year, it commissioned the first 500 kW short-wave transmitters at Allouis and Issoudun.
In 1973, Syndicat National des Journalistes (SNJ) noted the bankruptcy of the DAEC in a white paper, La Voix de la France. Members of Assemblée Nationale are divided on broadcasting to the outside world. In 1974, the newly elected President of the Republic Valéry Giscard d'Estaing put an end to the debate by deciding to dismantle the ORTF in seven companies. The service of programs abroad is affected by new directives: it loses 14 of its 17 languages, 21 retaining only French, English and German. In addition, two thirds of journalists, 100 out of 157, are dismissed.
On 6 January 1975, Radio France Internationale (RFI), an entity of the new Radio France group, was born. Radio is financed by the audiovisual fee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
RFI is resolutely turning to Africa, a choice that can be seen in the launch of the Chaîne Sud in 1975. The latter broadcasts 16 hours of programs in French and 1 hour in English. Several programs are created, such as Carrefour, 24 heures en Afrique or Mondial Sport, but a good part of the programs come from the other stations of Radio France. Radio quickly met with the support of listeners, mostly Africans and not French expatriates.
On February 16, 1976, Chaîne Ouest was created for francophones on the west coast of North America and Central America. But it only relays 5 h of programs of France Inter every day. On 7 March 1977, Portuguese made its return to the air at the rate of one hour a day.
On 1 April, Chaîne Est was created for Central and Eastern Europe. It relays the programs of France Inter or France Culture, providing only two hours of specific programs, over the fifteen hours of daily broadcasting. At the same time, RFI continues to produce programs for immigrants living in France on a Ministry of Labor budget.
On February 1, 1981, RFI leases four Africa No. 1 transmitters in Gabon to improve its coverage. In September, it set up a new schedule of programs, half of which were broadcast by France Culture and France Inter. On 13 December, the establishment of the state of siege in Poland led the radio to relaunch the Polish section in just three days. In January 1982, Michèle Cotta, president of Radio France, chose Hervé Bourges to run the station. The latter wants to make the development of the station irreversible. The government has adopted a five-year development plan to create a world-wide French-language service and foreign-language editing. On 1 May, RFI is diversifying by launching an agency for African newspapers: Médias France Intercontinentale (MFI).
The Audiovisual Law of 29 July 1982 makes RFI a national company, a subsidiary of Radio France. The station is continuing its development by re-opening editorial offices in Russian in September 1983, Romanian in June 1984, Creole in September 1985 and Serbo-Croat in 1986. Starting in October 1982, the radio broadcasts its programs in Spanish, Portuguese and French to Latin America. On February 22, 1985, the transmitting center of Montsinéry-Tonnegrande in Guyana was inaugurated. On September 29, RFI began to broadcast on average in the Paris region.
The 1986 legislative elections brought the right to power. Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and French Culture Minister François Léotard accuse RFI of being a leftist. They try to place the radio under the direct authority of the government by appointing its president in council of ministers. But the attempt fails and it is the media regulatory authority that must appoint the president from a list of four candidates proposed by the state.
On 1 January 1987, Radio France Internationale (RFI) became a national independent program company, no longer a member of the Radio France group, following the Audiovisual Act of 30 September 1986. Henri Tézenas du Montcel became first president. He wants to continue the development of the station by going beyond the Francophonie and opening it to Asia and the Arab world. Thus, Arabic programming was re-established in March 1988. RFI signed an agreement with the Japanese NHK in July and then with the Chinese Radio Pekin in November for broadcast in Asia-Pacific in exchange for a broadcast of Asian radio in Europe and in America. In September, it signed another agreement with Africa No. 1 to use a new transmitter in Gabon. In parallel, the dressing of the station is modernized: new tricolor logo, new sound cover and abandonment of the accordion in the indicative. In the spring of 1989, demonstrations in Tian'anmen Square prompted the radio station to re-launch its Chinese-language version.
In November 1989, André Larquié was appointed president of RFI. On December 20, 1990, he signed a new five-year objectives contract with the State, which included the launch of new languages, the strengthening of the transmitter base and the modernization of broadcasting methods with the appearance of FM. The Gulf War from 1990 to 1991 led RFI to make information a priority. Moreover, the fall of communist regimes in Europe and the growing democratization in Eastern Europe and Africa led to the creation of independent media, competing with RFI. In response, the station launched in 1989 RFI 2 Afrique, a stall program specific to Africa, renamed RFI Plus Afrique in 1991. On 8 September 1991, RFI inaugurated its first FM frequency in Dakar, Senegal. New languages appeared: the Vietnamese in 1990 and the Persian in 1991.
In 1992, André Larquié was re-appointed to his position. He continued to implement the 1989 target contract. In 1993, RFI opened Khmer, Laotian and Albanian newspapers and launched RFI Bulgaria and then RFI Romania in 1995. station opens two other FM frequencies in Guyana, Cayenne in 1993 and then in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni the following year. In 1994, the radio was reorganized into three branches: Africa, Europe and Paris/Ile-de-France. It launches on the Internet and reinforces its FM and shortwave coverage.
In November 1995, Jean-Paul Cluzel was appointed President of RFI. He decides to make RFI a radio of continuous information.
On 16 September 1996, Radio France Internationale (RFI) launched its new information radio network in order to compete with other international stations. 10-minute newspapers every 30 minutes are interspersed with 20-minute news magazines. The radio now has two channels: RFI 1, the French-language global service that goes from 18 daily editions to 58, including 10 dedicated to Africa; and RFI 2 which broadcasts in 17 languages nearly 34 daily programs representing 230 hours per week. To mark this change, RFI adopts a new logo, red and white. At the same time, SOFIRAD sold RMC Moyen Orient to the group RFI.
In January 1997, the station created RFI 3 Musique, a channel that broadcasts a musical thread. In 1999, Aeriel Hungary was launched with 12 hours of programs produced by RFI and 12 others in English produced by the BBC. In 2000, it was RFI Deutschland.
In June 2004, Antoine Schwarz was appointed head of RFI. It sets several geographical priorities: Africa, where radio has the majority of its audience, the Middle East, via RMC Moyen Orient, and Europe. He also engaged in work on the broadcast languages of RFI and continued the digitization process initiated by his predecessor. On 1 June 2005, RFI launched RFI Marine in collaboration with Worldspace and Météo-France. The programs consist of an international newspaper in French every hour, followed by weather reports interspersed with musical beaches. The station, broadcast via Worldspace's AfriStar satellite, covers the Channel, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. On 19 December 2005, RFI launched its new website.
On October 19, 2004, Alain Ménargues, Deputy Director General of RFI, was dismissed after the publication of his book The Wall of Sharon and the holding on Radio Courtoisie of polemical remarks calling Israel a "racist state" condemned by RFI's editorial staff . In a ruling handed down on 9 March 2011, the Court of Cassation held that the dismissal was "devoid of real and serious cause" and ordered RFI to pay damages.
On March 26, 2006, RFI launched its new grid. Four European languages (Albanian, Polish, Romanian and Slavic) ceased to broadcast in shortwave. At the end of the year, RMC Moyen Orient changed its name to Monte Carlo Doualiya. On 28 March 2007, RFI teamed up with the Serbian private news agency Beta to found the private radio station Beta RFI, broadcast 24/7 on the Serbian capital. In 2007, the station launched RFI Instrumental, a music library for audiovisual professionals. It gathers thousands of music from the five continents that can be used as a sound envelope for audiovisual productions. On 8 December, RFI launched a Hausa-based service in Lagos, Nigeria, in partnership with Voice of Nigeria (VON).
On April 4, 2008, Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF) was created under the impetus of the President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy elected the previous year. It is a question of regrouping the activities of the audiovisual outside France under the same company, television channels TV5 Monde and France 24, and the radio RFI. Alain de Pouzilhac is appointed CEO and Christine Ockrent as Deputy CEO of the new entity and therefore the entities that compose it. They chose Geneviève Goetzinger to be the managing director of RFI.
On August 11, 2008, editor-in-chief Richard Labévière was dismissed for "serious misconduct" after interviewing Bashar al-Assad a few days before his visit to Paris as part of the Union for the Mediterranean summit. Labévière denounces a "closure of the Audiovisual outside France".
In January 2009, management announced an important social plan with the cancellation of 206 out of a total of 1,040. It confirms the plan presented in October, which consisted of the deletion of certain languages due to lack of hearing: Albanian, German, Laotian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish but also the development of others: English, Portuguese and Swahili. In addition, in the face of RFI's financial and audience difficulties, the State is preparing a recapitalization of € 17.2 million. In response, the inter-union RFI calls for an unlimited strike from May 12, 2009. For several months, the antenna is disrupted by movements more or less followed, making this strike the longest in the history of RFI. On 28 September, the Paris Court of Appeal suspended the dismissal plan, deeming it "tainted with irregularities". Finally, at the end of the year, 270 employees initially volunteered, more than the plan envisaged.
At the end of 2009, in accordance with the plan of October 2008, RFI ceded all its subsidiaries (RFI Sofia, Rádio Europa Lisboa and Beta RFI) except Monte Carlo Doualiya and RFI Romania. On January 19, 2010, Monte Carlo Doualiya launches a new grid. On 31 October 2010, it was RFI's turn to launch a new program schedule following the introduction of a single multi-lingual and multi-channel drafting. As of 5 July 2010, thanks to the success of RFI in Hausa, the radio broadcasts programs in 10 African countries in a new African language: Swahili.
In January 2012, Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF) merged with its subsidiaries RFI, France 24 and Monte Carlo Doualiya (a subsidiary of RFI). This legal merger is effective on 13 February 2012. On October 7, Marie-Christine Zaragoza, formerly director general of TV5 Monde, is appointed president of the AEF. In February 2013, RFI and MCD left their studios at the Maison de la Radio in Paris to move to the AEF premises alongside France 24 in Issy-les-Moulineaux. On 27 June, Audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF) was renamed France Médias Monde (FMM).
On October 19, 2015, RFI began broadcasting programs in a third African language: Mandingo, spoken by nearly 40 million people. On February 7, 2016, RFI launched a series of 52 programs on the history of Africa in partnership with UNESCO. This program, presented by the historian Elikia M'Bokolo, is based on the project General History of Africa initiated by UNESCO in 1964 and which resulted in a publication in 8 volumes.
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