An algorithm for finding the unequal error protection (UEP) capability of a q-ary image of a low-rate qm-ary cyclic code is presented by combining its concatenated structure with the UEP capability of concatenated codes. The results are independent of a choice of a basis to be used for expanding an element over GF (qm) into GF (q). A table of the UEP capability of binary images of low-rate Reed-Solomon codes over GF (26) is given. It is shown that the encoding and decoding algorithms for superimposed concatenated codes can be applied to a q-ary image as a linear UEP code.