Brussels – The European Union agreed on Tuesday to provide emergency funds to help keep Radio Free Europe after the Trump administration Detainee subsidies to the media in favor of the media, accusing him of promoting a news agenda with a liberal bias.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty began transmitting during the Cold War. Its programs are transmitted in 27 languages in 23 countries in Eastern Europe, Central and the Middle East Asia. His lawyers have been fighting the administration in court.
The head of EU Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, said that the foreign ministers of the block had agreed a contract of 5.5 million euros ($ 6.2 million) to “support the vital work of Radio Free Europe.” “Short -term emergency financing” is a “security network” for independent journalism, he said.
Kallas said that the EU could not fill the organization’s financing gap worldwide, but that it can help the broadcaster to “work and function in those countries that are in our neighborhood and that they depend a lot on the news that comes from abroad.”
She said she hoped that the 27 EU member countries would also provide more funds to help Radio Libres from Europe in the long term. Kallas said the block has been looking for “strategic areas” in which it can help, since the United States reduces foreign aid.
The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters is located in Washington and its journalistic headquarters is based on the Czech Republic, which has led the EU impulse to find funds.
Last month, a federal judge from the United States ordered the Trump administration Restore $ 12 million that was assigned by Congress. The lawyers of the service, which has been operating for 75 years, said it would be forced to close in June without money.
March, rode I remembered the influence that the network had on it while growing in Estonia, which was part of the Soviet Union.
“Coming from the other side of the iron curtain, it was actually (from) the radio that we obtained a lot of information,” he said. “Then, it has been a lighthouse of democracy, very valuable in this regard.”
