“For everyone who believes in democracy”
This is how Czech Republic Radio Free Europe wants to save
16.03.2025 – 5:37 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Radio Free Europe has been a reliable source of information since the Cold War. Now the US government is spreading the funds to the broadcaster. Could the EU step in?
According to the financing stop of US foreigners such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFerL), the Czech government wants to speak to the EU on the preservation of the station, according to the funding stop of US President Donald Trump. “It is in our interest that not totalitarian regimes thrive around us,” said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky on Sunday. “That is why we have to talk about steps to maintain this institution.”
Rferl started his transmission operation in Munich, and the headquarters have been in Prague since 1995. The broadcaster is broadcast in 23 countries and in 27 languages and reaches around 50 million people weekly. Around 1,700 employees and freelance journalists have worked for RFerl. Once he was closed, the broadcaster could “not be rebuilt so easily,” warned Lipavsky.
“From Belarus to Iran, from Russia to Afghanistan, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are one of the few remaining free information sources for those who live in oppression,” said Lipavsky. The closure of these transmitters would be a loss “for all of us who believe in democracy”.
Trump had ordered drastic cuts in a decree signed on Friday to the Usagm authority responsible for the abroad. This is one of the “elements of the German bureaucracy that the President considers unnecessary,” said the decree. The White House said that the cuts would make sure that “taxpayers no longer have to pay for radical propaganda”.
The broadcasters have editorial precautions that guaranteed independence despite the previous financing by the US government. This causes trouble in the President’s camp, who has been working against the media for a long time. During his first term, Trump had demanded that the media financed by the US government should support its politics.
