Radio Australia has re-started its French news service, which closed eight years ago as a result of budget cuts. The service is available in an audio file format, sent to radio stations in New Caledonia, Tahiti and Vanuatu and beamed to the region’s 500,000 French-speaking inhabitants.
‘There has always been a demand for it but budgetary constraints meant that we couldn’t respond to that demand,’ Radio Australia head Jean-Gabriel Manguy said.
The new French news service is named ’24H dans le Pacifique’, announces Radio Australia’s French website (http://www.abc.net.au/ra/francais).