Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe (RFE) is an international radio broadcasting service established in 1950, primarily sponsored by the US government. It was created to provide uncensored news and information to Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe during the Cold War, serving as a critical alternative to state-controlled media. Originally headquartered in Munich, Germany, RFE utilized shortwave transmissions to reach audiences in multiple languages. Its broadcasts played a significant role during key uprisings in the region, such as those in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
While initially covertly funded by the CIA, RFE's ties to the agency were severed in the 1970s, after which it became independent and continued to function as a promoter of democratic values. Following the collapse of communist regimes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, RFE adapted its mission to address the evolving media landscape in Eastern Europe, expanding its focus to include coverage of conflicts in the Middle East. In recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RFE has remained a vital source of alternative information for audiences affected by media manipulation and disinformation.
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Subject Terms
Radio Free Europe
- FOUNDED: 1950
- TYPE OF ORGANIZATION: International radio broadcasting service sponsored by the US government
- SIGNIFICANCE: During the Cold War, shortwave broadcasts by Radio Free Europe were among the only sources of information reaching communist countries that were not censored
Radio Free Europe (RFE) is part of a network of media offices financed by the US government to promote democratic values and American interests abroad. RFE was established in 1950 to broadcast into Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Its headquarters were in Munich, Germany, and shortwave transmitters were set up in various locations for maximum penetration. A similar agency, Radio Liberty (RL), was added in the early 1950s to broadcast into the Soviet Union.
As did Radio Liberty and several similar operations, RFE offered news, information, and commentary as an alternative to that provided by the communist-controlled media in Eastern European countries. (The Voice of America, created several years earlier, covered a broader geographical area, and focused more on explaining American culture, values, and policies.) In its early years, RFE actively advocated widespread rejection of the Soviet-backed governments of Eastern Europe. Millions of East Europeans listened, and the uprisings in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 were at least partially credited to RFE’s broadcasts. Engaging in yet another form of censorship, the communist governments periodically attempted to jam the signals broadcast by RFE, but they met with only partial success.
Although it was staffed by émigrés and expatriates from Eastern Europe and was made to appear as a private operation, RFE was covertly funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency. When this fact became public in the early 1970s, critics charged that RFE’s CIA-funded propaganda was an unworthy corrective for the government-controlled media in Eastern Europe. As a result of this criticism, RFE’s and RL’s ties to the CIA were severed, and both were placed under an independent Board for International Broadcasting. In 1976, the two networks merged.
Even after the termination of CIA influence, RFE maintained a substantial presence in Eastern Europe. It broadcast daily in a half dozen languages, utilized (with RL) seventeen hundred employees, and received some $100 million in annual funding. However, with the collapse of the Soviet-sponsored regimes from 1989 to 1991, RFE/RL’s anti-censorship mission was made largely obsolete. Most Eastern European and former Soviet countries developed relatively democratic governments, and state monopolies on the media were broken. Nevertheless, RFE/RL continued its operations as both a promoter of American values and foreign policy and a source of information on the former Soviet bloc for use by Western analysts.
The 2000s saw the suspension of RFE/RL broadcasts in some Eastern European nations as global areas of interest turned to conflicts in the Middle East. Attention was paid to producing content in Arabic, Farsi, and other languages that could be broadcast to Middle Eastern nations. Still, Russia’s continued manipulation of the media inspired RFE/RL to create new Russian language programs. In the 2010s, RFE/RL joined with Voice of America to make “Current Time,” a Russian-language television network. RFE/RL also restarted broadcasting to Eastern European nations. In the 2020s, RFE/RL was used to spread information about the COVID-19 pandemic. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, RFE/RL once again became a source of alternative information for Ukrainians and Russians.
Bibliography
"About RFE/RL." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, about.rferl.org/about-rfe-rl. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.
"Our History." Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, about.rferl.org/our-history. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.
Harris, Graham. "Poland’s War on Radio Free Europe, 1950-1989." History, vol. 100, no. 343, Dec. 2015, pp. 785–86. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=112378691&site=ehost-live. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.
Puddington, Arch. Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. University Press of Kentucky, 2003.
"The Story of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty." Hoover Institution, 2001, www.hoover.org/sites/default/files/library/docs/story‗of‗radio‗free‗europe.pdf. Accessed 17 Oct. 2024.