On Monday 17 March, three days after the US decision to cut off funding to Radio Free Europe, Voice of America (VoA) and Radio Free Asia, which are supervised by the US government agency USAGM, there was a flurry of reactions.
Following a decree issued by US President Donald Trump ordering the dismantling of Radio Free Europe on Friday 14 March, its employees were told that they would have to hand in their press cards and equipment, while a withdrawal of funding from the US administration is expected.
“By putting an end to the activities of the USAGM and its media, the Trump administration is sending out a disastrous signal: authoritarian regimes such as Beijing and Moscow now have a free hand to impose their propaganda without hindrance”, warned an alarmed Reporters Without Borders.
“Radio Free Europe and Voice of America played a crucial role in Lithuania’s efforts to gain independence. (...) These media have helped those under pressure and those fighting for freedom. This is the way forward”, said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Monday 17 March.
Funded by the US Congress, the radio station, founded in 1950 to broadcast to the Communist bloc during the Cold War, now broadcasts to 23 countries in Eastern Europe, from the Balkans to Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic. Based in Prague, the radio station employs more than 1,700 people and reaches 47 million listeners every week.
“We know the overall budget required. For Europe as a whole, this is an achievable amount, but for the Czech Republic alone, it is clearly beyond our capacity”, said Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský.
€120 million would have to be raised to finance the radio station, he added, putting the issue before the EU Council on Monday 17 March. A letter could be signed by his counterparts, said Rikard Jozwiak, the European editor of Radio Free Europe in Prague, in a post on the X social network.
“Can we fill the gaps in US funding?”, asked the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs. Before replying that “many organisations come with the same request”. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)