Talk:Radio Free Europe
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In 1975, RFE was merged with a very similar Congress funded anti-communist organization called Radio Liberty (RL, founded in 1951 by the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia) and the group name was officially changed to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
As I read in the article about the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, wasn't Radio Liberty founded in 1953(with its previous name Radio Liberation)? (instead of 1951). Radio Liberation changed its name in Radio Liberty in 1964. Also the CIA funding in RFE was revealed in 1967.
sources: Soley Lawrence C., Radio Warfare, OSS and CIA Subversive Propaganda, Praeger, New York, 1989.
[edit] The broadcasts were part of a general CIA psychological warfare campaign directed behind the Iron Curtain.
Maybe, but at the same time it was the best source of information in many Soviet-ocuppied countries, supported by many emigrants. The anti-RFE activities of several US politicians were criticised and still are.
The text is biased. Xx236 12:36, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
- In what way do you feel it's biased? I myself think that the only bias here is the lack of clear mention that RFE/RL is no longer a propaganda tool and is now a legitimate news organisation. --Aramգուտանգ 16:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
The article doesn't inform that the RFE informed. (The main goal of propaganda is misinformation.) Nowak-Jeziorański was a very respected man, not a CIA puppet. RFE was better than the majority of commercial stations today, it informed about culture and history.
[edit] It does need work
I don't have the time to do the editing, but this article needs some serious work. It helps if you have someone who knows something about internatinal broadcasting, international news and the differences between international broadcasters and the subset of surrogate broadcasters. The best site for information is the Hoover institute at Stamford, which is the repository for RFE-RL. I don't consider RFE-RL to have been guilt of blatant propagandizing in its Cold War period or since. The CIA generally recognized that straightfoward, faactual almost boring news did the job best. That became an issue for critics at the Heritage Foundation, which in 1981 did a report which complained RFE-RL was "too fact neutral" and urged more freedom for non-objectivity by broadcasters. The Hoover URL is hoorferl.stanford.edu/rlexhibit/
Opinion in part -- The crackdown the week of 9July06 represented a serious failure of RFE-RL (and VOA) management. Their affiliates program, started more than a decade ago, in which they pay for the right to broadcast their news on internal affairs within the Soviet Union was controversial at the outset, but critics were stifled. The difficulty is that such an arrangement has long been considered an infringement of national sovereignty -- and provided no backup to the information flow if shut down. Given its then financial constraints, RFE-RL put market share and cost savings ahead of program integrity (not in content but delivery). Expensive transmitters could be shut down and more listeners gained for a fraction of the cost, especially as RFE-RL was reshaped so that it bore little resemblance to its predecessor with the same name. BBG does the same in other countries around the world,but while less controversial by virtue of carrying litttle local news, the practice is unwise. In the case of Russia, an RFE-RL official in effect boasted of disclosing corruption, etc. that would affect local elections. It should be reported, but the Ameircan government would not tolerate the same conduct by the Russians. This happened because no one paid attention or cared what the radios did post-Cold War and still don't. I doubt that belongs in the article, but perspective is needed. Having shut down most of their transmittters, foreign radios cannot act as surrogates in a time of need.
As a factual matter (from Hoover and multiple sites). The facade of private funding, real but completely inadequate, was used from the outset with secret CIA funding. The CIA connection was probably widely suspected.
Ramparts Magazine disclosed in 1967 that the CIA had secretl (and illegally) funded the National Student Association. LBJ ordered a study of CIA funding in a number of areas and the eventual result was the disclosure that the CIA paid for and operated RFE and RL. It would take some research to establish the date that the CIA was linked to RFE-RL, but it was probably later than 1967. The CIA funding was stopped by 1971 with the BIB oversight, but until then it was still secret in the sense it was part of the CIA budget which was not disclosed. The CIA would have required some time to separate its intelligence functions from the radios. Although they remained separate operatins for another five years, most would have conflated the two CIA operations into one -- whether they were merged or not. Both were part of the anti-commnist contrainment policy urged on the US by diplomat George Kennan, whose "long telegram" warned of Soviet intentions.
Radio Free Europe was's cover was established by a committeee for freedom in the "captive states." it first broadcast to czechoslovakia in 1951. It was from the beginning intended for "Captive Nations" rather than the Soviet Union. Those states included the Baltic Republics etc. The central language was English.
Radio Liberty began broadcasting in 1953 and also had a cover group that originally had a name calling for eliminating Bolshevism in Russsia. Liberty was aimed at the Soviet Union itself, broadcasting in Russian and up to 20 other languages within the USSR proper.
There was some crossover, but the organizations were different and operated from different buildings in Munich. The two organizations were merged in 1976 and RL moved into the RFE building after an expansion. Other operations were combined. It was an absolute mess. Beyond language, the pay scales, the pensions and everything else was different - even the spy vs. spy routines. The culture clashes took years to resolve.
RFE was hardly a dull place with things like a bombing and Georgi Markov's killing. and Stasi spies as executive secretaries.
RFE-RL contributed to the Soviet Empire collapsing. But there is NO objective evidence that this is true. As for the broadcasts, while in theory they all followed the same rules and programming guidelines, it is in reality very difficult to follow the output of so many languages unless you are a native speaker. On a given day, a Czech broadcaster might cross a line and be told to shape up, or wherever. But a listener who heard a crossing of the line would remember. Was it common? I doubt it. But it can't be proven in general without a line by line reading of scripts and listening to 50 years of output. Not practical. You have to trust what subjective evidence there is. RFE-RL research was also good (and used by the CIA). I have less trust in RFE-RL assessments about themselves on a corporate level, bbut on a factual or historical level, they're good.
Some writers compare VOA favorably or unfavorably to RFE. The comparison is not valid although criticism may be. As the Cold War neared an end, the two were competing for funds.VOA broadcast nearly full time in Russian, the other major Soviet languages and most of the European as well. These were cut or eliminated as Western Europe stablized. But the two American radios were never intended for the same purpose. In addition, VOA was based in New York (until 1954) and then Washington. Atlhough VOA also had a large operation in Munich during the 1950s, all broadcasts originated from studios in the US. The difference in locations gave a different perspective.
VOA was primarily an International broadcaster while RFE-RL filled a subset called International surrogate broadcaster, i.e. they were intended as surrrogates for radio stations that were not allowed.
