Last week was tough for Radio Canada International employees as we finally found out the impact of the $500,000 budget reduction because of the station leaving Sirius Satellite Radio. RCI’s new director Helene Parent had warned employees back in February (See Update from the new RCI Director ) that because of the drop in revenues, [...]
Full Story »
Twenty years ago today on March 25, 1991, hosts and staff, in English, French and seven other language services said goodbye to listeners as they signed off, after a massive cut was announced on March 22, 1991.
Cut were numerous employees from the French and English services, as well as the entire staff of the Czech, [...]
Full Story »
This morning, Helene Parent, RCI’s new director, called staff into her second staff meeting since becoming director December 22, 2010, to update the employees on the latest developments.
She reassured them that the financial situation of the French service of CBC/Radio-Canada (which has responsibility for RCI) was reasonably good, given the context of federal funding which [...]
Full Story »
RCI’s new Director Helene Parent held her first meeting with staff this morning. She told employees she had wanted to come to RCI, and looked forward to working with them. In her introductory statement Parent said that she would make time to talk to employees individually to hear suggestions and observations about the international service. [...]
Full Story »
Today, December 5th, is the 20th anniversary of the day Gerard Veilleux, the president of our domestic radio-television service CBC/Radio-Canada, announced Radio Canada International would only continue if the Canadian government paid for it.
This decision set off two decades of vulnerability, questioning, and changing of mandates that continues.
It also set off reaction through letters and [...]
Full Story »
On March 26, 1982 RCI inaugurated its Ottawa bureau.
RCI Director Betty Zimmerman (fourth from left) with staff: three English and three French journalists. At the time, they were all kept very busy covering the nation’s capital. In 2010, one of the two (!) journalists of our reduced Ottawa bureau was sent [...]
Full Story »