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A Long and Distinguished History, But Not a Simple One
Free Europe, Inc., was established in 1949 as nonprofit, private corporation to broadcast news and current-affairs programs to Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Radio Liberty Committee, Inc., was created two years later along the same lines to broadcast to the nations inside the Soviet Union.
Both were funded principally by the U.S. Congress, through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but received supplemental private donations as well. The two corporations were merged into a single RFE/RL, Inc. in 1975.
In 1971, CIA involvement ended and all funding and oversight responsibilities were transferred to a presidentially appointed Board for International Broadcasting (BIB).
The BIB's sole responsibility was oversight and funding of RFE/RL, Inc., and after 1982, BIB members also served as members of the board of directors of RFE/RL, Inc. In 1994, its duties were transferred to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which today oversees all nonmilitary U.S. international broadcasting, including Voice of America, Radio Marti, Radio Free Asia, and World Net TV.
Since the early 1970s, the U.S. Congress has appropriated funds for RFE/RL as part of its regular yearly deliberations on the budgets of the federal government. RFE/RL today receives its funds in the form of a grant from the BBG.
Bringing News to People Who Need It
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact regularly jammed RFE/RL's signals. In 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended jamming, allowing RFE/RL signals to reach a broader audience and allowing RFE/RL services to enter into a closer relationship with the people and journalists to whom they were broadcasting.
RFE/RL's contribution to the end of communism in this region was acknowledged by virtually everyone. Polish leader Lech Walesa said its role was comparable to the one the sun plays to the Earth.
Former Estonian President Lennart Meri nominated RFE/RL for the Nobel Peace Prize and then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin personally intervened to help create an RFE/RL bureau in Moscow after the failed August 1991 coup.
When communism collapsed, many thought that the radios had fulfilled their mission and could be disbanded. But officials across the region stressed the continuing need for precisely the kind of broadcasts RFE/RL has brought to this region.
Former Czech President Vaclav Havel spoke for many when he said that "we need your professionalism and your ability to see events from a broad perspective."
Nonetheless, RFE/RL did cut back in some areas even as it expanded in others. It closed its Hungarian Service in 1993, and the Polish Service in 1997, while its Czech Service was substantially reduced and joined with Czech Public Radio to establish a new public-affairs radio program. The Broadcasting Board of Governors in Washington ended funding for broadcasting to the Czech Republic on September 30, 2002. In January 2004, RFE/RL's services to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria were closed.
In January 1994, RFE/RL began broadcasts to the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In October 1998, the Persian Service began broadcasting to Iran, and Radio Free Iraq began broadcasting in Arabic to Iraq. In March 1999, RFE/RL started broadcasting to Kosovo in Albanian and in 2001 the Latvian Service launched a special bridge-building program in Russian for the Russian minority in Latvia. In September 2001, RFE/RL started broadcasting to Macedonia in both the Macedonian and Albanian languages. Broadcasting in Dari and Pashto to Afghanistan began January 30, 2002. RFE/RL's newest language service, the North Caucasus, began broadcasting in Avar, Chechen, and Circassian on April 3, 2002.
Currently, RFE/RL's 18 services broadcast programs in the following 28 languages: Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Avar, Azeri, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bosnian, Chechen, Circassian, Crimean Tatar, Croatian, Dari, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Pashto, Persian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Tajik, Tatar, Turkmen, Ukrainian, and Uzbek.
With all these changes, the future of RFE/RL seems assured. Its services will continue to bring news and information to people who need them throughout the 21st century.
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