Fast Facts RFE/RL's Radio Svoboda is the leading international broadcaster in Russia. As Russia witnesses increasing control of the media by state authorities, Radio Svoboda has become a key forum for those who lack access to other means of free expression. Language: Russian Coverage: 24 hours daily Established: 1953 (as Radio Liberty) Distribution: Radio (FM, MW, UKV, SW, CBL, Satellite), Internet (www.svobodanews.ru) Locations: Prague headquarters, Moscow Staff: 82 in Prague and Moscow, 1 (Washington), 1 (New York), approximately 100 stringers Affiliates: Seven, broadcasting Radio Liberty programs to approximately 20 cities in the Russian Federation. Radio Liberty has lost a startling number of affiliates since 2004, when almost 30 local stations carried its programs, due to political pressure.

History

• RFE/RL’s Russian Service in 1953 began broadcasting to the Soviet Union from Munich under the name Radio Liberty. For four decades, it was a key source of information from both outside and inside the Soviet Union, providing a platform for dissidents and emigres to voice their views.
• The Russian Service gave a voice to many prominent Soviet dissidents, including the nuclear physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, whose statements the service aired to Soviet audiences.
• In 1991, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree allowing the Russian Service to open a bureau in Moscow.
• Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the broadcaster organized a network of stringers across the Russian Federation, from Kaliningrad in the West to Kamchatka in the far East.
• In recent years, the website of the Russian Service has expanded beyond duplication of the broadcaster's radio programming to become a unique and independent information source.

Media Environment

• Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index, 2010: Not Free (175th/196)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, 2009: 153rd/175
• Russia continues be one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. Most media is strictly controlled, and those who take an independent stance vis-à-vis the government or seek to criticize officials or investigate their activities put themselves at risk.
• The Committee to Protect Journalists counts 17 journalists murdered in Russia since 2000. In 2009 alone, Stanislav Markelov, Natalia Estemirova, Maksharip Aushev and Sergei Magnitsky, prominent human rights activists and lawyers, were killed.

Highlights

• Radio Svoboda’s website (www.svobodanews.ru) had 1.2 million unique visitors in August 2009 (compared to 700,000 in August 2008) -- a 70 percent increase. The average number of page views per visit increased by more than 300 percent over the same time period (total of 13.5 million page views in August 2009).
• As Russia witnesses the continuing suppression of free speech and the control of electronic media by state authorities, Radio Svoboda has become a key forum for political and public figures who lack access to other means of free expression. Radio Svoboda is one of the very few outlets that listeners and readers turn to for reliable information and objective analysis of domestic and international events.
• Radio Svoboda conducted exclusive interview with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov shortly after the prominent human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was abducted in Grozny and later found murdered in the neighboring region Ingushetia.
• Two years after allowing Radio Liberty to open its Moscow bureau, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said of it: “It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of your contribution to the Russian people."

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Population
142 million (2008 World Bank estimate)

Most Common Languages:
Russian, Over 100 minority languages of which 27 are considered official

Press Freedom Index (Freedom House):
Not Free, ranked 175 out of 196 (2010)

Press Freedom Index (RSF):
153 out of 175 (2010)

Corruption Index (Transparency Int.):
154 out of 180 (2010)

Global Peace Index (IES):
143 out of 149 (2010)

Human Rights Watch:
Report on Russia (2010)

Amnesty International:
Russia Report (2009)