 | |
| Type | International public broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | France Médias Monde (Government of France) |
| History | |
| Founded | 1945(1975 as Radio France International) |
| Coverage | |
| Availability | Worldwide |
| Affiliates | |
| Links | |
| Website | |
Radio France Internationale, usually referred to asRFI, is thestate-owned international radio news network ofFrance. With 59.5 million listeners in 2022, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along withDeutsche Welle, theBBC World Service andVoice of America.[1][2][non-primary source needed]
RFI broadcasts 24 hours per day around the world in French and in 16 other languages in FM, shortwave, medium wave, satellite and on its website. It is a channel of the state companyFrance Médias Monde. The majority of shortwave transmissions are in French andHausa but also includes some hours ofSwahili,Fulfulde andMandinka. RFI broadcasts to over 150 countries on 5 continents.[2][non-primary source needed] Africa is the largest part of radio listeners, representing 60% of the total audience in 2010.[3][non-primary source needed] In theParis region, RFI comprises between 150,000 and 200,000 listeners. Its digital platforms attract an average of 24.6 million visits a month (2022 average) while 31.1 million followers stay connected via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and Youtube.[1][non-primary source needed]
In 2020, the audience was of 58.1 million listeners (up to 11.6 million compared to 2019, +25%), breaking down into 29.8 million in French-speaking Africa, 11 million in non-French speaking Africa, 2 million in the Maghreb region, 1.3 million in Europe, 13 million in the Americas and 1 million in Asia.[4][non-primary source needed]
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RFI was created in 1975 as part ofRadio France by theGovernment of France, and replaced thePoste Colonial (created in 1931),Paris-Mondial (1937),Radio Paris (1939), a private station which was commandeered by the Germans during theoccupation of France, and the Voice of France which was operated by theVichy regime from 1941 to 1944,RTF Radio Paris (1945) andORTF Radio Paris (1965). In 1986 theFrench Parliament changed the law to allow RFI to operate independently of Radio France.
RFI operates under the auspices and primary budget of theMinistry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. It broadcasts primarily in French, but also inEnglish,Swahili,Hausa,Spanish,Portuguese,Romanian,Russian,Persian,Chinese,Vietnamese,Cambodian and as of 2015,Manding. As of 2 April 2020, the English service has ceased broadcasting, replaced by a selection of French music.
It also ownsMonte Carlo Doualiya (formerly Radio Monte Carlo Middle East), which producesArabic programmes in Paris, and airs them from a transmitter in Cyprus to audiences across the Middle East and North Africa.
On 17 September 2002,Togolese PresidentGnassingbé Eyadéma tried to stop the broadcasting of an interview with one of his opponents,Agbéyomé Kodjo, by phoning directly to theElysée Palace. The interview was notcensored byJean-Paul Cluzel, RFI's CEO at the time, due to the coordinated intervention of the journalists' trade unions. However, a report raising questions regarding theFrench secret services responsibilities in the 1995 death of judgeBernard Borrel inDjibouti, which was broadcast on 17 May 2005, was later removed from RFI's website for undisclosed reasons, possibly due to the intervention of Djiboutian PresidentIsmail Omar Guelleh.[5]
On 21 October 2003,Jean Hélène was reporting for RFI during thecivil war inIvory Coast when he was killed inAbidjan by police sergeant Théodore Séry Dago.[citation needed]
On 2 November 2013, RFI reporting teamGhislaine Dupont andClaude Verlon were murdered while covering theMali elections. TheUnited Nations set their death date to commemorate theInternational Day of Impunity each year.[6]
In November 2020, RFI mistakenly published numerous obituaries of famous people on its own web site, as well as sending them to related web sites, after moving draft stories to a new system.[7]
The government ofNiger suspended two state-owned media outlets (France 24 and the RFI) following the2023 Nigerien coup d'état.[8]
RFI offers a daily podcast in simpleFrench namedJournal en français facile.[9][needs update][non-primary source needed] There are also several other podcasts including the weeklyAfrique Presse,[10][better source needed] which is hosted by Assane Diop and discusses the most important news in Africa that week.
Radio stations inFrance | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radio France (public) |  | |
| Espace Group | ||
| HPI Groupe | ||
| ISA Media Development | ||
| Lagardère Radio | ||
| Les Indés Radios (GIE) | ||
| RMC BFM | ||
| Nova Press | ||
| NRJ Group | ||
| Groupe M6 | ||
| Groupe 1981 | ||
| Other private | ||
| Local stations |
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
