While CBC, like other crown corporations and government departments, has to cut 10 per cent of its overall budget as a result of federal cutbacks, RCI, which is administered by the CBC but has long been its poor cousin, was told more than 80 per cent of its budget would be slashed, or $10 million of $12.3 million.
As of June 25, there will no longer be any Russian or Portuguese language sections, there will be no more RCI newsroom, no more RCI programs, in fact, no more shortwave or satellite broadcasting at all, other than to direct listeners to the Internet, the CBC decided last week. RCI will retain a “Web presence” in five languages – but what kind of presence remains to be seen.
The news was a severe blow to the staff at RCI, at least two-thirds – or about
40 – of whom can expect to receive pink slips April 25. But the death knell also struck listeners around the globe, who regularly tune in to RCI to hear news of Canada – or news from a Canadian perspective.
“Upsetting,” “absolutely dreadful,” “shocking.” Those were the words listeners from Bulgaria to Missouri used to describe the end of RCI’s shortwave broadcasts after more than six decades on the air.
Created by government decree, RCI first hit the airwaves in 1945, broadcasting in three languages – English, French and German – to Great Britain and Western Europe. RCI’s shortwave signals were said to be the clearest broadcast from North America.
RCI then became, for a time, the official broadcaster for the newly created United Nations, and as the Cold War divided East and West, RCI’s broadcasts focused on the Soviet bloc countries, to restore to listeners behind the Iron Curtain the ability to hear an unbiased account of world events.
Sheldon Harvey, the president of the Canadian International DX Club, and a longtime shortwave enthusiast, said the international service, over the decades, has gained a stellar reputation, ranked just behind the BBC World Service – despite its relatively tiny budget – for its balanced, neutral perspective.
It was never a propaganda tool, like the Voice of America, he said.
“They have table scraps thrown at them, yet are able to put together such high-quality broadcasts for people around the world,” Harvey said. “To see that tossed aside is really sad.”
The CBC has said it decided to “transform” RCI “consistent with currently shifting media consumption behaviours, as well as strategies adopted by other public broadcasters.” The BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and RFI have reduced their shortwave services in some markets, the CBC points out. On the other hand, China Radio International is scooping up as many frequencies as possible.
But the idea that listeners in other countries can all go online is farcical, Harvey said. Only 22 per cent of the population in the developing world has access to the Internet, whereas anyone with a wind-up or solar-powered radio can receive shortwave transmissions. What’s more, governments can block the Internet – as they have in Iran, China and parts of the Arab world – all part of today’s Iron Curtain. But as was seen during the Cold War, it’s almost impossible to block shortwave frequencies. If the Soviet Union jammed some frequencies, broadcasters could simply switch to others, Harvey said, and the cat and mouse game continued.
Up till now, RCI also has served to introduce people to Canada during peacetime, whether as potential visitors, trading partners or immigrants, Harvey said. Shutting down its broadcasts is like closing down embassies and trade missions. “It’s waiting for people to come to us, as opposed to knocking on their doors ... I don’t think the government realizes how much of the world they are cutting off by doing this.”
Daryl Copeland, a Canadian diplomat for 28 years and now a research associate at the University of Ottawa, says shutting down the Russian and Portuguese sections is particularly myopic of the CBC. In foreign affairs parlance, the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – are the new focal points for power, and RCI is one of the few diplomatic tools that are left.
You can’t address global problems like climate change, bio-diversity or health pandemics militarily, he said. The only way to seek to be influential on these issues is to attract others by the power of argument, and having a voice is crucial.
“CBC’s mandate is to inform Canadians. But it’s important to have a broader perspective here. ... If you believe this country has something to say, you can’t support these cuts.”
For Wojtek Gwiazda, the host of Masala Canada, RCI was about reaching Canadians abroad, but also about making Canada understandable to non-Canadians.
“When I thought of my listeners, I wanted them to arrive here better informed about Canada than the average Canadian,” Gwiazda said. “Our job was to let people know about this really interesting country with all these talented people.”
Though they could never measure the number of listeners the way we can now measure the number of page views on a website, its potential was and is still enormous, he added. In 1990 it was estimated that RCI had an audience of 16 million.
Gwiazda, speaking on behalf of the RCI Action Committee, a union lobby formed in the 1990s to fight successive rounds of budget cuts, fancies himself a bit of a Don Quixote. But this last windmill may prove unbeatable.
“It’s been a death by a thousand cuts. I think we can resuscitate (RCI), but we can’t handle this cut.” If the CBC doesn’t realize that, the government should, he said.
Original Article
Source: montreal gazette
Author: CATHERINE SOLYOM
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