RFI operates under the auspices and primary budget of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. In 1986 the French Parliament changed the law to allow RFI to operate independently of Radio France. RFI was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial (created in 1931), Paris-Mondial (1937), Radio Paris (1939), a private station which was commandeered by the Germans during the occupation of France, and the Voice of France which was operated by the Vichy regime from 1941 to 1944, RTF Radio Paris (1945) and ORTF Radio Paris (1965). History Logo of RFI from 1996 until June 2013. In 2007, the audience was of 46.1 million listeners, breaking down into 27.5 million in Africa, 10.5 million in the Middle East, 4.2 million in the Americas, 2.2 million in Europe and 1.7 million in Asia-Oceania. ![]() In the Paris region, RFI comprises between 150,000 and 200,000 listeners. Africa is the largest part of radio listeners, representing 60% of the total audience in 2010. RFI broadcasts to over 150 countries on 5 continents. The majority of shortwave transmissions are in French and Hausa but also includes some hours of Swahili, Portuguese, Mandinka, and Russian. It is a channel of the state company France Médias Monde. RFI broadcasts 24 hours per day around the world in French and in 12 other languages in FM, shortwave, medium wave, satellite and on its website. ![]() With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with Deutsche Welle, the BBC World Service, the Voice of America, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, and China Radio International. Mali’s under-equipped army has also often been accused of committing abuses during the brutal conflict.īut the army-dominated interim government, installed after a 2020 military coup, regularly rejects such accusations.Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio news network of France. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. Swathes of the country are in thrall to myriad rebel groups and militias. ![]() In February, it expelled a journalist working for the French magazine Jeune Afrique just a few hours after he arrived in the capital Bamako.Īn impoverished nation of 21 million people, Mali has over the past decade been wracked by Islamist violence. The junta has recently moved towards exerting tighter control over foreign media. HRW this week released a report accusing Malian soldiers, as well as jihadists, of a wave of civilian killings. Mali’s junta also accused Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Michelle Bachelet, the UN human rights chief, of making false allegations against the government. “Certain allegations, particularly those advanced by RFI, have no other objective than to sow hatred,” he said, adding that this demonstrated the “criminal intent” of some journalists. He compared the French broadcasters to Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines - a notorious outlet that incited listeners to exterminate minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. ![]() Maiga said Malian news websites, newspapers and its national radio and TV stations were all “banned from rebroadcasting and/or publishing programmes and news articles put out by RFI and France 24”. The junta, which seized power in August 2020, said there had been “false accusations” in a report early in the week in which RFI aired comments from alleged victims of abuse by the army and shadowy Russian private-security group Wagner. RFI (Radio France Internationale) and France 24 cover African news extensively and have a strong following in the former French colony.įrance Medias Monde, the parent company of RFI and France 24, said on Thursday that it “deplores” the decision to take its broadcasters off the air. There is no recent precedent in Mali for major foreign news media to be taken off the air. RFI was no longer broadcasting in the conflict-ridden Sahel state on Thursday afternoon, according to AFP reporters, although France 24 remained on air. “By attacking the freedom of the press, the freedom to inform and to be informed, the junta is continuing and confirming that it is pushing ahead regardless,” foreign policy spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said in Brussels. The European Union lashed the ban as “unacceptable” and said the accusations on which it was based were “unfounded.” The junta is “initiating proceedings… to suspend broadcasts by RFI and France 24… until further notice,” he said in the statement dated Wednesday. The government in Bamako “categorically rejects these false accusations against the courageous FAMA (Malian Armed Forces),” spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said.
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