Re: [Swprograms] A Retrograde Decision

[Mike Barraclough <softbulletin1@xxxxxxxxx>]

RSI English section have posted this on their website:

An open letter from Radio Slovakia International - RSI
staff


?Slovak Radio will make redundant 84 out of 909
employees and will stop the foreign broadcast on
short-waves. This way, the Radio management has
decided to cut costs and compensate revenue shortfalls
in concession payments and payments from the state
budget.? (an extract from press agencies)

Out of 84 planned redundancies a quarter represent the
staff of Radio Slovakia International ? the 6th
station of the public broadcaster. This figure
represents almost two thirds of the total number of
positions in RSI. Due to these radical cuts the
foreign service ? an important, unique and many times
the only source of information about Slovakia in 6
languages (English, French, German, Russian, Slovak
and Spanish) - will not be able to fulfill its mission
sufficiently.

Shortly after the establishment of the independent
Slovak Republic, Slovak Radio in Bratislava started
its short-wave broadcast to inform the whole world not
only about the current political developments in our
country but also about Slovak economics, culture,
society, tourism, history and sports in its 30 minutes
daily programs. Thanks to the fact that our programs
and news are produced in this public institution and
are based on reliable agency sources the world can
receive updated and objective information on a daily
basis. It is necessary to point out that our programs
are prepared and produced by our own journalists.
Broadcast with such a wide audience is the result of
work of a small team of professionals skilled in
languages including Slovak as well as foreign
journalists and technicians. The necessity of the
existence of this source of information has been
approved by increasing number of listeners (we receive
about 10 thousand letters a year). We should not omit
to mention a large archive of materials and documents
created over the past 13 years of RSI?s existence.

Foreign broadcasting is in most countries a part of
the overall foreign strategy for all but Slovak
government. Despite the alleged efforts to implement
RSI into promotion of Slovakia abroad none of the
Ministries is ready to support its existence
financially. For the period until June 2006, the
Economy Ministry has allocated SKK 2.6 billion from
the operational program Industry and services,
including SKK 700 million for promoting Slovakia
abroad. It is a paradox that in this effort the state
is not willing to support by SKK 50 million a year
such a well established and reliable form of promotion
of this country abroad as RSI.

This open letter expresses the support to the efforts
of the Slovak Radio management to sustain the foreign
broadcast services.

RSI team



Dear Friend of RSI

Should you wish to protest about the stopping of
shortwave broadcasting from Radio Slovakia
International the following e.mail addresses may be
useful for you!

Director of Slovak Radio:

	reznik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Culture Ministry:
	

ministerkultury@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
	

km@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
	

mksr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Government Office:

	urad@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Parliament:

	info@xxxxxxx

Ministry of Finance:
	inform@xxxxxxx
	

mgera@xxxxxxx

Foreign Ministry:

	infopublic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Economy Ministry:
	fondrkova@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
	

kudlickova@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

RSI:
	englishsection@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Your help is much appreciated
RSI Team




--- Scott Walker <n3sw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I listened to the English program from Radio
> Slovakia on Friday evening.  Mention was made in the
> news summary that Slovak government committees would
> be meeting next week to decide the fate of the
> shortwave services of Radio Slovakia International. 
> Pete Miller, the Friday host, called the proposed
> shutdown of the shortwave services a "retrograde"
> development.  He sounded very resigned to this, as
> if it is a fait accompli, and no mention was made of
> getting listener's feedback to try to stop it.  He
> did say there would be "redundancies"... one wonders
> whether he himself is threatened by that.
> The program included a feature on a Dobro guitar
> festival held in the town where the inventor of the
> dobro guitar lived.  They interviewed American
> bluegrass star Sam Bush.
> I didn't realize the dobro came from Slovakia.
> -Scott Walker
> -New Cumberland PA USA >
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