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The Czech government has pledged to support Radio Free Europe/radio freedom after President Donald Trump’s administration, which is countering the propaganda of dictatorships such as Russia and Iran, cut funding for broadcasters.
The Prague-based media outlet relies on US federal grants, initially set up to communicate across iron curtains during the Cold War. Funding cuts were part of an effort to cut Trump’s foreign aid, shutting down audio for America, a federal broadcaster that launched during World War II.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiara will do everything he can to give them the opportunity to continue this extremely important role,” he added, adding that he had listened to Radio Free Europe in his youth.
Fiara called for a “coalition of states for European solutions.” He felt “very proud” to host RFE/RL and hoped to remain in Prague, where he has been based since 1995.
The Czech government recruited seven other EU countries to find fresh funds for the RFE/RL, and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky proposed a European acquisition.
According to the media group, the 1,700 staff has 47 million weekly viewers in 23 countries and 27 languages.
Elon Musk, who is trying to cut Trump’s administration, has called for the RFE/RL to be shut down and dismissed it as “radical troubled crazy people, torching $1 billion a year/year of US taxpayer money.”
The broadcaster hopes that it can overturn the cuts in court aid. On Tuesday, it sued the US global media agency for violating the US Constitution by ending a grant covering a $142 million annual budget. “We believe that the law is on our side and that celebration of our end mise by tyrannical lords around the world is premature,” said Chief Executive Stephen Capus.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiara: “We will do everything we can to give them the opportunity to continue this extremely important role.” © Milan Jaros/Bloomberg
Pavel Butorin, director of RFE/RL’s Russian TV channel, said the Trump cut was “shocking” and Russian officials were “popping champagne.” He said he still hopes that the US Congress will restore the order. Historically, “Some of our strongest supporters came from the Republican side, so I hope they make a statement,” he said.
Butrin has painful personal experiences of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s media crackdown after his wife was arrested while visiting his family in Russia in 2023. Ars Krmasheva, who worked for RFE/RL, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison, including spreading false information about the Ukrainian Russian military.
She was released last August as part of a US Russian prisoner swap after her husband was kept in what he called “slept and eat three feet from a hole in the ground that served as a toilet.”
Daisy Cindeller, former editor-in-chief of RFE/RL, said “encouraging” support from Prague and other European governments showed that they “understand the importance” of the broadcaster’s work. “Wars in Ukraine are not far-fetched reality, they are happening at the border,” she said.
Butolin said the funding issue could place the right to remain in the EU at risk for many employees with work-related residence permits. Half of the 160 staff on his TV channel is Russian.
“Our journalists care about their country. They don’t see themselves as representatives of America,” he said.
