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Radio Australia has become one of the latest
organisations to join the AIB. To introduce the
Melbourne-based organisation,
Simon Spanswick
talked to the station’s head,
Jean-Gabriel Manguy
What is the mission of Radio Australia?
The purpose of Radio Australia is enshrined in the Charter of the ABC,
the national public service broadcaster in Australia. It is to foster an
understanding of Australia, and Australian attitudes, overseas. In other
words we are not here to promote Australia in any way, but to broadcast
fromourAustralian perspective without any agenda. Underthe Charter,
Radio Australia is funded from the ABC budget.
You say it’s not to promote Australia but to broadcast from an
Australian perspective, so what do listeners hear when they tune in?
We do not broadcast programmes that extol the virtues of Australian
products or values. We try to provide – in line with public service
broadcasting values – a service that is useful to audiences in either
Asia or the Pacific. That includes good, credible coverage of news and
analysis of the issues that are relevant to people – so a strong focus on
Asian affairs and Pacific affairs, as well as Australian affairs.
In the case of the Pacific in particular, we try to connect a region of
the world that is very wide and sparsely populated, sharing
information across the region. When you and I travel around the
world we are always aware of the global agenda. Large media
organisations from the northern hemisphere are very effective at
bringing that [agenda] to everyone’s attention. What is missing –
certainly in the Pacific – is an exchange of information across the
region, trying to connect people. RA does that through information-
based programmes, as well as interactive programmes – we try to
give people a sense of a regional community if you like.
In that sense then you are not really competing with the major
international broadcasters like Deutsche Welle, Radio France
Internationale or the BBC, for example.
The ABC Charter makes no geographic reference but because of our
location, because of the reality of our very modest budget, because of
the reality of what else is available, we have identified that RA can be
more effective at a regional rather than at a global level. Our content
and our focus is on Asia and Pacific affairs and, of course, Australia’s
interaction with the region.
There are many languages spoken across the region – what
languages does Radio Australia operate?
English, of course, as well as Mandarin, Indonesian, Vietnamese,
Khmer, Pidgin English – for Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the
Solomon Islands – and we have reintroduced a limited French service.
Interestingly, this is not a broadcast service but an online text and
audio news service, primarily for the French-speaking Pacific islands.
The type of programming on our services varies by market. For
example, output for Indonesia and Cambodia might concentrate
on development issues including health, social and environmental
issues and these are backed up by the web. Interestingly in
Indonesia we’re becoming very interactive and it’s building in our
programmes. Every day our Indonesian colleagues are involved in
joint talk-back programmes with some of our [local FM] partners,
AIB INTERVIEW
Life’s a
Advertising Radio Australia in Phnom Penh
Solomon Islands beach - Radio Australia 107FM