| Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | |
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RFE/RL official logo |
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RFE/RL Broadcast Region 2009 |
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| Abbreviation | RFE/RL |
| Motto | Free Media in Unfree Societies |
| Formation | 1949 (Radio Free Europe), 1953 (Radio Liberty), 1976 (merger) |
| Type | private, non-profit Sec 501(c)3 corporation |
| Purpose/focus | Broadcast Media |
| Headquarters | Prague Broadcast Center |
| Location | Prague, Czech Republic |
| Official languages | English. Programs are currently also available in Albanian, Armenian, Arabic, Avar, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Bosnian, Belarusian,Chechen, Circassian, Crimean Tatar, Dari, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Pashto, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Uzbek |
| President | Steven Korn |
| Parent organization | Broadcasting Board of Governors |
| Budget | $83,161,000 (FY 08) |
| Staff | 497 |
| Website | Rferl.org |
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed".[1] RFE/RL is supervised by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a bi-partisan federal agency overseeing all US international broadcasting services.[2]
Founded as an anti-communist propaganda source during the Cold War, RFE/RL was headquartered at Englischer Garten in Munich, Germany, from 1949 to 1995. In 1995, the headquarters were moved to Prague in the Czech Republic. European operations have been significantly reduced since the end of the Cold War. In addition to the headquarters, the service currently maintains 20 local bureaus in countries throughout their broadcast region, as well as a corporate office in Washington, D.C. RFE/RL broadcasts in 28 languages[3] to 21 countries[4] including Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.[5]
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Radio Free Europe was created and grew in its early years through the efforts of the National Committee for a Free Europe (NCFE), a US anti-communist organization that was formed in New York City in 1949. The committee was composed of an "A list" of powerful U.S. citizens including former ambassador and first NCFE chairman Joseph Grew; Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles; Reader's Digest owner Dewitt Wallace; former diplomat and the co-founder of Public Opinion Quarterly Dewitt Clinton Poole; and prominent New York investment banker Frank Altschul.[6] Its mission was to support the refugees and provide them with a useful outlet for their opinions and creativity.[7] The NCFE divided its program into three parts: exile relations, radio, and American contacts.[6] Although exile relations were initially its first priority, Radio Free Europe (RFE) became the NCFE's greatest legacy.
RFE was developed out of a belief that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means.[8] American policymakers such as George Kennan and John Foster Dulles acknowledged that the Cold War was essentially a war of ideas. The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the Communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world.[9]
RFE was modeled after Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) a U.S. government-sponsored radio service initially intended for Germans living in the American sector of Berlin (but more widely listened to in East Germany).[10] Staffed almost entirely by Germans with minimal U.S. supervision, the station provided free media to German listeners. In order to establish a broadcast presence in Europe like RIAS, the NCFE began an extensive fundraising effort known as the "Crusade for Freedom". The bulk of its RFE initial funding, however, came from the CIA.[11] In January 1950 the NCFE obtained a transmitter base at Lampertheim, West Germany and on July 4 of the same year RFE completed its first broadcast aimed at Czechoslovakia.[12]
In late 1950, RFE began to assemble a full-fledged foreign broadcast staff, becoming more than a "mouthpiece for exiles."[13] Teams of journalists were hired for each language service and an elaborate system of intelligence gathering provided up-to-date broadcast material. Most of this material came from a network of well-connected emigres and interviews with travelers and defectors. RFE did not use paid agents inside the Iron Curtain and based its bureaus in regions popular with exiles.[14] RFE also extensively monitored Communist bloc publications and radio services, creating an impressive body of information that would later serve as a resource for the CIA and other government organizations.[15]
In addition to its regular broadcasts RFE was also known for its balloon operation (1951–1956), a project that involved dropping anti-Communist propaganda from balloons.[16] Meteorological balloons were stuffed with leaflets and floated over the Iron Curtain into Eastern Europe. The nature of the leaflets varied, and included messages of support and encouragement to citizens suffering under communist oppression, satirical criticisms of communist regimes and leaders, information about dissident movements and human rights campaigns, and messages expressing the solidarity of the American people with the residents of Eastern European nations. The project served as a publicity tool to solidify RFE's reputation as an anti-communist broadcaster.[17]
Radio Liberty was originally called Radio Liberation when formed by American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (Amcomlib) in 1951.[18] Amcomlib was a CIA funded organization that was similar to the NCFE but dealt with exiles from the Soviet Union.[18][19] Radio Liberty began broadcasting from Lampertheim on March 1, 1953, gaining a substantial audience when it covered the death of Joseph Stalin four days later. By March 1954 Radio Liberty was broadcasting six to seven hours daily in eleven languages.[20] It had a base at Oberwiesenfeld Airport on the outskirts of Munich.[21] It hired several former Nazi agents who had been involved in the Ostministerium under Gerhard von Mende during WWII.[22] Radio Liberty broadcast targeted the Soviet Union whereas Radio Free Europe targeted the satellite countries.[23]
Both broadcasters dealt with significant technical challenges while trying to reach their intended audiences. In 1951, RFE supplemented its shortwave transmissions from Lampertheim with broadcasts from a transmitter base at Glória.[24] In 1955 Radio Liberty began airing programs to Russia's eastern provinces from shortwave transmitters located on Taiwan,[25] while in 1959 Radio Liberty commenced broadcasts from a base at Playa de Pals, Spain.[26]
RFE played a critical role in Cold War era Eastern Europe. Its audience increased substantially following the failed Berlin riots of 1953 and the highly publicized defection of Józef Światło.[27] Its Hungarian service's coverage of Poland's Poznań riots in 1956 arguably served as an inspiration for the Hungarian revolution.[28]
RFE's Hungarian service was accused of precipitating the 1956 Hungarian revolution by giving its Hungarian listeners false hope of Western military assistance.[29] However, later investigations of RFE's involvement in the Hungarian revolution cleared the organization of these accusations, while also urging more caution in its broadcasts.[30] RFE's Broadcast Analysis Division was established to ensure that broadcasts were accurate and professional while maintaining the journalists' autonomy.[31]
Others argue, alternatively, that Radio Free Europe's broadcasts may also have precipitated the Soviet crackdown on Hungary on November 3–4, 1956. Inflammatory broadcasts by emigres may have caused Soviet leaders to doubt Hungarian leader Imre Nagy's managerial skills, fear the power vacuum in Hungary, and conclude that a second military invasion was necessary. Moreover, the early balloon and leaflet operations initiated by the National Committee for Free Europe during Nagy's first term as Hungarian prime minister (1953–1955)—namely "Operation Focus"—arguably antagonized Nagy and spawned a stern neutralism (later, hostility) toward him among U.S. diplomats and RFE broadcasters during the crisis.[32][33]
During the Cold War RFE was often criticized in the United States as not being sufficiently anti-communist. Although its nongovernmental status spared it from full scale McCarthyist investigations, several RFE journalists including director of the Czech service, Ferdinand Peroutka were accused of being soft on Communism.[34] Fulton Lewis a U.S. radio commentator and fervent anti-communist was one of RFE's sharpest critics throughout the 1950s. His critical broadcasts inspired other journalists to investigate the inner workings of the organization including its connection to the CIA. Eventually it was exposed as a CIA-front organization in the 1960s, and funding responsibility shifted to Congress.[35]
In late 1960, an upheaval in the Czechoslovak service led to a number of dramatic changes in the organization's structure. RFE's New York headquarters could no longer effectively manage their Munich subsidiary, and as a result major management responsibilities were transferred to Munich, making RFE a European-based organization.[36]
Broadcasts were often banned in Eastern Europe and Communist authorities used sophisticated jamming techniques in an attempt to prevent citizens from listening to them.[37] Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and Russian reformer Grigory Yavlinsky would later recall secretly listening to the broadcasts despite the heavy jamming.[38]
Communist governments also sent agents to infiltrate RFE's headquarters. Although some remained on staff for extended periods of time, government authorities discouraged their agents from interfering with broadcast activity, fearing that this could arouse suspicions and detract from their original purpose of gathering information on the radios' activities. In 1965–71 an agent of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Communist Poland's security service) successfully infiltrated the station with an operative, Captain Andrzej Czechowicz. According to former Voice of America Polish service director Ted Lipien, "Czechowicz is perhaps the most well known communist-era Polish spy who was still an active agent while working at RFE in the late 1960s. Technically, he was not a journalist. As a historian by training, he worked in the RFE’s media analysis service in Munich. After more than five years, Czechowicz returned to Poland in 1971 and participated in programs aimed at embarrassing Radio Free Europe and the United States government."[39]
Other espionage incidents also included a failed attempt by a Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (StB) agent in 1959 to poison the salt shakers in the organization's cafeteria.[40]
The CIA stopped funding Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in 1972.[41] In 1974 they came under the control of an organization called the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). The BIB was designed to receive appropriations from Congress, give them to radio managements, and oversee the appropriation of funds.[42] In 1976, the two radios merged to form Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and added the three Baltic language services to their repertoire.
On February 21, 1981, RFE/RL's headquarters in Munich was struck by a massive bomb, causing $2 million in damage. Several employees were injured, but there were no fatalities. Stasi files opened after 1989 indicated that the bombing was carried out by a group under the direction of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (AKA Carlos the Jackal), and paid for by Nicolae Ceauşescu, president of Romania.[43]
Funding for RFE/RL increased during the Reagan Administration. President Ronald Reagan, a fervent opponent of Communism, urged the stations to be more critical of the communist regimes. This presented a challenge to RFE/RL's broadcast strategy, which had been very cautious since the controversy over its alleged role in the Hungarian Revolution.[44]
During the Mikhail Gorbachev era in the Soviet Union, the radios worked hand in hand with Glasnost and benefited significantly from the Soviet regime's new openness. Gorbachev stopped the practice of jamming the radios' broadcasts, and dissident politicians and officials could be freely interviewed by the radios for the first time without fearing persecution or imprisonment.[45] By 1990 Radio Liberty had become the most listened-to Western radio station broadcasting to the Soviet Union.[46] Its coverage of the 1991 August coup enriched sparse domestic coverage of the event and drew in a wide audience from throughout the region.[47] The broadcasts allowed Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to stay in touch with the Russian people during this turbulent period. Boris Yeltsin later expressed his gratitude through a presidential decree allowing Radio Liberty to open a permanent bureau in Moscow.[48]
RFE/RL also played a significant role in the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which brought an end to the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Following the November 17 demonstrations and brutal crackdown by Czechoslovak riot police, RFE/RL's Czechoslovak service reported that a student, Martin Šmid, had been killed during the clashes. Although the report later turned out to be false – Šmid was alive and well – the story is credited by many sources with inspiring Czechoslovak citizens to join the subsequent (larger) demonstrations which eventually brought down the communist government.
Upon hearing about the story, RFE/RL did not run it immediately, but attempted to find a second corroborating source for the story, as per official RFE/RL policy. While a second source was never found, RFE/RL eventually decided to run the story of Šmid's death after it was reported by several major news organizations, including Reuters, the Associated Press, and the Voice of America.[49]
In addition, Pavel Pechacek, the director of RFE/RL's Czechoslovak service at the time, was mistakenly granted a visa to enter the country by the Czechoslovak authorities prior to the demonstrations. He reported live from the demonstrations in Wenceslas Square, and was virtually the only reporter covering the events fully and openly in the Czech language for a Czech audience.[50]
On January 31, 2004, RFE/RL launched broadcasts to the former Yugoslavia in Serbo-Croatian (Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian-Montenegrin). In the late 1990s RFE/RL launched broadcast to Kosovo in Albanian and to Macedonia in Macedonian. In 1995, RFE/RL moved its headquarters from Munich to Prague. The Clinton Administration reduced funding significantly and placed the radios under the United States Information Agency's oversight.[51] RFE/RL ended broadcasts to Hungary in 1993 and stopped broadcasts to Poland in 1997. Broadcast to the Czech Republic proceed for three more years under the agreement with Czech Radio. In 2004 RFE/RL stopped broadcasting to Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Romania. That was the real end of Radio Free Europe since all the original European states except Russia were off the air. RFE/RL proceeded with reduced broadcasts to only six European countries: Moldavia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo. Meanwhile, it has launched broadcasts to Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the North Caucasus.
RFE/RL states that its mission is to serve as a surrogate free press in countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. It maintains 20 local bureaus, but authoritarian governments often attempt to obstruct the radios' activities through a range of tactics, including extensive jamming, shutting down local re-broadcasting affiliates, or finding legal excuses to close down offices.[52] In many of these countries, RFE/RL is often the first and most reliable source of domestic news for citizens.
The safety of RFE/RL's journalists and freelancers, who often risk their lives to broadcast information to their listeners and readers, has been a major concern throughout RFE/RL's broadcast history and continues to be a major issue as reporters are threatened and persecuted on a regular basis.[53] RFE/RL also faces a number of central security concerns including cyberterrorist attacks[54] and general terrorist threats.[55] After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, American and Czech authorities agreed to move RFE/RL's Prague headquarters away from the city center in order to make it less vulnerable to terrorist attack.[56] On February 19, 2009, RFE/RL began broadcasting from its new state-of-the-art headquarters located east of the city center.[57]
RFE/RL continues to struggle with authoritarian regimes for permission to broadcast freely within their countries. Starting January 1, 2009, Azerbaijan has imposed a ban on all foreign media in the country, including RFE/RL.[58] Kyrgyzstan has also suspended broadcasts of Radio Azattyk, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz language service, requesting that the government be able to pre-approve its programming. Other states such as Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan prohibit re-broadcasting to local stations, making programming difficult for average listeners to access.
In 2008, Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged his government to provide assistance to a rape victim after listening to her story on Radio Azadi, RFE/RL's Afghan service.[59] Radio Azadi is currently the most popular radio station in Afghanistan, and Afghan listeners mail in hundreds of hand-written letters to the station each month.[60]
In September 2009, RFE/RL announced that it would begin new Pashto-language broadcasting to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.[61]
In October 2009, RFE/RL introduced a daily, one-hour Russian-language broadcast to the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The program, called Ekho Kavkaza (Echo of the Caucasus), focuses on local and international news and current affairs, and is organized in coordination with RFE/RL's Georgian Service.[62]
On January 15, 2010, RFE/RL began broadcasting to the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan in Pashto. The service, known as Radio Mashaal, was created in an attempt to counter the growing number of "pirate" Islamic extremist radio stations broadcasting in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These pirate stations broadcast pro-Taliban messages as well as fatwas (religious edicts) by radical, pro-Taliban clerics.
Radio Mashaal broadcasts local and international news with in-depth reports on terrorism, politics, women's issues, and health care (with an emphasis on preventive medicine). The station features roundtable discussions and interviews with tribal leaders and local policymakers in addition to regular call-in programs.[63]
RFE/RL received funds from the Central Intelligence Agency until 1972. Since then, it has been funded by regular, open Congressional appropriations through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and has received no funds from the CIA.[64] The CIA's relationship with the radios began to break down in 1967, when Ramparts magazine published an expose claiming that the CIA was channeling funds to civilian organizations. Further investigation into the CIA's funding activities revealed its connection to both RFE and RL, sparking significant media outrage. Investigations into the legal basis of the relationship jeopardized the existence of both radios, which could not survive without the CIA's funding.[65]
In 1971 the radios came under public spotlight once again when prominent U.S. Senator Clifford Case introduced the Senate Bill 18 which would remove funding for RFE and RL from the CIA's budget, appropriate $30 million to pay for fiscal year 1972 activities and have the United States Department of State temporarily oversee the radios.[41] This was only a temporary solution, however, as the State Department was reluctant to take on such a significant long-term responsibility.
In May 1972 President Richard Nixon appointed a special commission to deliberate RFE/RL's future.[66] The commission proposed that funding come from the United States Congress and that a new organization, the Board for International Broadcasting (BIB) would simultaneously link the radios and the federal government and serve as an editorial buffer between them.[67]
Although both radios initially received most of their funding from the CIA, RFE maintained a strong sense of autonomy. Under Cord Meyer, the CIA officer in charge of overseeing broadcast services from 1954 to 1971, the CIA took a position of minimal government interference in radio affairs and programming.[51]
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