Trump tried to close Radio Free Free Europe. The EU threw him a lifeline

The European Union has occurred to provide Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an infusion of millions of dollars to continue working, since the international broadcaster has already submitted against the Trump government against the publication of funds, the congress for this.

“We are grateful for emergency financing to keep Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty alive,” said the president of the network, Steve Capus, in a explanation by Brussels in which he met with European officials.

“The survival of Radio Liberty is still at risk as long as these funds are held back,” said Capus, referring to 75 million US dollars, which were held back by the Trump government.

Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were founded in the early 1950s as part of Cold war initiatives to combat the Soviet propaganda and influence. They later merged. The news network tries to provide countries in Eastern Europe and neighboring countries in which the press cannot work freely, to provide non -ideological reporting and programming for countries in Eastern Europe and neighboring countries.

Last year, more than 47 million unique users per week rely on their reporting in 23 countries, such as in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Hungary, Iran and other countries in Central Asia and in the Caucasus in 23 countries. The Trump government initially tried to reduce Radio Free Free Europe/Radio Liberty and its sister networks, including Voice of America. His senior consultant, Kari Lake, biased and biased her claimed that they had served anti -American cuisine.

While President Trump has given the need to identify important budget cuts throughout the government, his actions properly fit a larger strategy in order to undermine the finance and independence of the news media.

The measures include Executive Orders who specify that the federal financing for public broadcasting and board members of the company for public broadcasting. Trump's appointment at the Federal Communications Commission started investigations of all important Broadcast networks Save Fox (owned by Trump's allied Rupert Murdoch). And Trump and his allies have submitted private civil lawsuits against large news agencies.

Lake, the Senior Presidential Adviser, supervised the termination of contracts for more than 500 people at Voice of America and his mother agency last week. A court of appeal is considering a complaint from a coalition of journalists, employees, unions and press releases who say that their actions violate the federal law and the protection of freedom of speech.

The US government has held back monthly payments from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty until a federal judge published $ 12 million. The parent outfit, the US agency for global media, sent the funds late for April. The network is still waiting for its federal payment for May.

On Monday, RFE/RL submitted an application for a new temporary injunction to the court to force payments for this month. In addition, an injunction was requested, at which the agency sent the fully 75 million US dollars for the rest of the financial year, which ends on September 30th.

So far, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has brought numerous employees on vacation, canceled contracts with freelancers and cut back programming.

The EU head of foreign policy Kaja Kallas informed the reporters that there would be 6.2 million US dollars for “the important work of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty”.

“It is short -term emergency financing as a safety net for the [network’s] Independent journalism, ”she added.

Sweden previously promised to give 2 million US dollars to support RFE/RL's reporting, but have not yet arrived.

“The first thing it means is how much the Europeans appreciate the work, the RFE does and how important they think that they are in their news and ecosystem in their news ecosystem,” says Rick Stengel, a former US foreign minister under State Secretary for Public Diplomacy under the former president Barack Obama.

In particular, it points to the reporting of the network on Russia and Hungary and the influence that they have on other European nations. Stengel also tells NPR that this emergency financing crisis suggests a model that could prove to be more stable than in the future.

“In many ways, it was an initiative after the Second World War and in the Cold War that wanted to help the European countries that were among the shadows of Soviet rule,” said Stengel. “Now that you are on the road, why wouldn't you even have a consortium of financing for RFE that is a combination of European and American financing?”

Such a solution could depend less on the mood of an unpredictable US administration, he says.