After the Trump administration reduced financing for the international broadcaster, the Czech Republic is requesting EU assistance to maintain Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
The Prague-based RFE/RL “is one of the few credible sources in dictatorships like Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan,” according to Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky.
During the Cold War, when communist authorities strictly regulated local media, the US government-funded channel reached millions of listeners in Eastern Europe and contributed to the propagation of democratic values.
RFE/RL was rejected by Elon Musk, who oversaw cost-cutting under Donald Trump, as “radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1 billion of US taxpayer money annually.”
