Officials within the Czech Republic have appealed to the European Union for support in keeping Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on the air for the foreseeable future.
The broadcast service, which transmits news and information in nearly two dozen languages to around 30 countries, faces the likelihood of a prolonged transmission blackout after the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) pulled its federal funding last weekend.
The decision to withhold federal funding followed an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump last Friday that ordered officials at USAGM to significantly pare back its activities, cancel contracts and lay off non-essential employees.
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty operates as an independent organization with tax-exempt status, and is funded through Congressional appropriations measures. By law, USAGM may oversee its activities, but the broadcaster is intended to be editorially separate from the federal government.
On Tuesday, Czech Republic Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty “one of the few credible sources” providing reliable news within countries “like Iran, Belarus, and Afghanistan,” which Lipavský described as “dictatorships.”
In an interview with the BBC, Lipavský said he was working to organize a consortium of countries that were willing to step in and support the ongoing operations of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on an interim basis.
“We will try to do everything to keep this organization with 75 years of legacy afloat,” Lipavský said.
Also on Tuesday, attorneys for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty filed a federal lawsuit in Washington against USAGM and two Trump administration officials — special advisor Kari Lake and USAGM Senior Advisor Victor Morales — that accused the pair of violating the law when they terminated the broadcaster’s funding contract.
Officials at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty said the paring down of federal grant money for their continued operations had the potential for dire consequences, as their programming tends to serve as a reliable counter to misleading propaganda broadcast by other countries.
“This is not the time to cede terrain to the propaganda and censorship of America’s adversaries,” Stephen Capus, the President of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, said in a statement late Tuesday evening. “We believe the law is on our side, and that the celebration of our demise by despots around the world is premature.”
In addition to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, other broadcast services operated or overseen by USAGM have had their employee count and activities significantly downsized, including the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Marti in Cuba.
Nearly all of VOA’s full-time and part-time employees were placed on indefinite leave on Saturday, and many of the channel’s live broadcasts have been replaced with a 40-second video that says the outlet will relaunch as a “consistently reliable and authoritative source of news” that “present the policies of the United States” and “represent America.”
Despite the suspensions, some Voice of America and Radio Free Asia staffers are continuing to show up for work, even as they remain uncertain if they will receive paychecks at any time in the near future.
