RCI English section: goodbye

Saturday, May 15 2021

Radio Canada International
By Marc Montgomery
english@rcinet.ca
May 14, 2021
Canada’s international broadcast service from the English language team 
of Radio Canada International has come to an end.RCI, (originally the 
International Service, CBC-IS) was initially created towards the end of 
the Second World War.
The purpose was to broadcast news and information from home via 
shortwave to Canadian military personnel fighting in Europe. It also 
began providing reliable news and information to recently liberated 
countries and to Germans still in the war.
That reliable news and information was considered of great value during 
the subsequent Cold War years, as several more languages were added to 
the service.
This included for example Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Hungarian and 
Polish, along with such language sections as Brazilian Portuguese and 
Japanese.
With 14 language sections in 1990, and some 200 staff, the full English 
and French newsroom provided news of interest and importance for each 
language section and specifically targeted to each of the various 
broadcast regions around the world.
Following a major budget cut of some 80 per cent in 2012, the shortwave 
and satellite service was terminated along with the majority of staff 
including the newsroom and some language sections. In recent years, only 
Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, and Spanish remained along with English and 
French.
RCI was transformed into a much smaller internet-based operation 
consisting of three people per language section.
In December 2020, the domestic public broadcaster CBC / Radio-Canada 
announced that the English and French sections of RCI would close for 
good in May.
In their place curated stories from the domestic English and French 
public broadcaster will be provided.
A manager will now oversee the staff of eight who will adapt curated 
stories from the CBC and Radio-Canada into Mandarin, Arabic, and 
Spanish, along with Punjabi and Tagalog.
An effort was and is being made by the RCI Action Committee to preserve 
and even expand the service which has garnered great support from a 
former prime minister, former diplomats and many academics, but the end 
date has come.
This is the last entry by the RCI English section.From the English 
Section consisting of Lynn, Marc, and Levon, we thank you for having 
shared our stories over these many years.
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2021/05/14/rci-english-section-goodbye/ 
<https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2021/05/14/rci-english-section-goodbye/>

Mike
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