Summarizing: RFI over the air radio broadcasts in Albanian,
German, Laotian and Polish will end on 19 December. Programmes in
German, Laotian and Polish will still be available on the Internet
'until we end our programmes in these languages at a date yet to be
decided', RFI said in a communique released on Thursday. Albanian
programmes over the air and the internet will end on 19 December.
Turkish programmes, available on the Internet only over the last
two years, will cease completely on 31 December. RFI keeps its FM
relays in Berlin, Vientiane, Tirana et Korca (Albania) to relay its
broadcasts in French, RFI indicates. Programmes in Serbo-Croatian
will still be broadcast via Beta-RFI, a company jointly held (49%)
by RFI. The closure of these services will result in the loss of
some 40 jobs, most of them in Paris.
Kai Ludwig in Germany comments: "Now, with the closure apparently
being sealed, it remains to be seen what will happen with RFI's FM
frequencies in Albania and Germany. In Berlin the inclusion of
broadcasts in German is a so-called 'decisive consideration' for RFI
being selected for 106.0 MHz, thus RFI forfeits the licence by
closing down the German service. So a continued FM presence in
Berlin appears to be pretty unlikely."
