Prague, Mar. 16, (dpa/GNA) – Broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is facing closure due to budget cuts by US President Donald Trump, the Prague-based station said on Saturday.
RFE/RL’s parent company, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), has informed the broadcaster that the agreement that provides funding for RFE/RL’s global operations, has been terminated.
Trump ordered massive cuts to USAGM, which oversees all state-funded foreign broadcasting programmes in the United States that are not run by the military and had already cut funding for US foreign broadcaster Voice of America on Saturday.
RFE/RL Chief Executive Stephen Capus criticized the decision, saying it would be “a massive gift to America’s enemies.” He added that the Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the end of RFE/RL after 75 years.
Capus highlighted the bipartisan support for the broadcaster among both US Republicans and Democrats.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský also voiced his opinion, stating on Saturday evening that Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America (VOA) are among the few free sources of information for people living under oppression from Belarus to Iran and from Russia to Afghanistan.
RFE/RL, founded in 1949 at the height of the Cold War, produces the Russian-language radio programme Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty) and the TV news channel Current Time. In 1981, its headquarters in Munich were bombed and RFE/RL moved to Prague in 1995 at the invitation of then Czech president Václav Havel.
The station also airs programmes in numerous other languages, including Ukrainian, Belarusian, Hungarian and Farsi. According to its own reports, RFE/RL reaches nearly 50 million people in 23 countries each week.
Russia declared RFE/RL an “undesirable organization” in February 2024, exposing those working with it in Russia to heavy fines or even imprisonment.
GNA