The English Service at RFI

Article published on the 2008-12-07 Latest update 2009-04-06 11:18 TU

(Photo: AFP)

French international radio first broadcast in English on the shortwave Poste Coloniale station in the early 1930s. English-language broadcasting from France then existed in variously-named organisations before becoming part of RFI when it was created in 1975. RFI is currently being organised into a single holding with other overseas broadcasters like TV5Monde and France 24.

RFI's English-language Service currently has over 40 journalists and producers in its Paris office with a network of over 50 correspondents around the world.

It broadcasts 33.5 hours of programmes each week and is funded partly by the French government and partly by audiovisual licence fees.

African news is the focus of our morning (4.00 UT on) and evening broadcasts (16.00 UT / 17.00 UT). At the weekend we run a weekly look at the media in Africa (African Media) and also review the week's news in Spotlight on Africa.

World news is in all our programmes but it is the focus at 12.00 UT while the 14.00 UT broadcast concentrates on Asian news. In our weekend programme Asia Pacific, we look back at the week's news in Asia.

Our sports coverage includes daily news and the weekly magazine Sports Insight which takes a look at anything from European football to French pétanque or Polish waterpolo.

Every day we bring our listeners a story that's making the news in France (Focus on France) and each weekend we look at what's happening in the world of French culture (Culture in France).

Our longer 20-minute features run every day and cover a wide range of subjects such as French culture, the African diaspora and world music.

We also work with partner stations Radio Netherlands and Deutsche Welle and are part of the Euranet partnership.

The English Service is just one of RFI's language services which broadcast in Spanish, Portugese, Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Radio France Internationale as a whole has over 1,000 employees, of which 465 are journalists, with a global network of 600 correspondents.

You can contact us for information or with feedback at [e-mail] or via our site.