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The Czech Republic is pressing the EU support to maintain the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that is executed after the Trump administration reduces the funds for the global station.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that RFE/RL, based in Prague, “is one of the few credible sources in dictatorships such as Iran, Belarus and Afghanistan.”
In Eastern Europe, the departure financed by the United States government reached millions of listeners during the Cold War, helping to disseminate democratic values while the communist authorities closely controlled local media.
Elon Musk, in charge of cost reduction under Donald Trump, dismissed RFE/RL as “the radicals left crazy talking to themselves while burning $ 1b/year of money from US taxpayers.”
But the president and CEO of RFE/RL Stephen Capus said Axinar the issuer’s subsidy agreement “would be a massive gift for the enemies of the United States.”
“The Iranian Ayatolás, Chinese communist leaders and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the disappearance of RFE/RL after 75 years,” he added.
The independent committee of protecting journalists (CPJ) of Capus echoed the concern of Mr. Capus, who complained that thousands of journalists would be affected by the cutting of funds from the United States, and that some who worked in censored countries were already “in serious danger.”
RFE/RL says that it reaches a weekly audience of almost 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan and the ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia and Caucasus.
Lipavsky, from the Czech Republic, said he would argue with other EU foreign ministers “how to keep his transmission at least partially.”
RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia and Voice of America (VOA) have trusted for decades in funds from the United States agency for global media (USAGM).
President Trump signed an executive order on Friday to reduce his funds after Musk had despised them in X, saying “shut them up.”
The measure contrasts with the policies of the media authorities in Russia, China and Iran, who have poured funds into their state stations to counteract the impact of Western liberalism worldwide.
Most VOA full -time employees have been put on administrative license and the contractors of the station, who dominate the language services that are not English, have been fired, reports the AFP news agency.
