Free Radio Europe/Radio Liberty ( RFE / RL ) is a broadcasting organization that broadcasts and reports news, information and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East where it is said that "free information flow is prohibited by governmental authorities or not fully developed". RFE/RL is a 501 (c) (3) company that receives US government funding and is overseen by the Board of Governors of Broadcasting, an agency that oversees all US federal international broadcasting services.
During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was broadcast to Soviet satellite countries and Radio Liberty (RL) targeting the Soviet Union. RFE was founded as a source of anti-communist propaganda in 1949 by the National Committee for Free Europe. RL was founded two years later and the two organizations merged in 1976. Communist governments often send agents to infiltrate the RFE headquarters, and the KGB regularly condenses the signal. RFE/RL received covert funds from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until 1972. During the early years of RFE's existence, the CIA and the US Department of State issued broad policy directives, and a developing system in which broadcast policy was determined through negotiations between them and RFE Staff.
RFE/RL is headquartered in Englischer Garten in Munich, West Germany, from 1949 to 1995. In 1995 the headquarters was moved to Prague in the Czech Republic. European operations have declined significantly since the end of the Cold War. In addition to headquarters, the service maintains 17 local bureaus in countries throughout their broadcast area, as well as corporate offices in Washington, DC RFE/RL broadcasts in 25 languages ​​to 23 countries including Armenia, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Radio Free Europe was created and grew in its early years through the efforts of the National Committee for Free Europe (NCFE), the CIA's anti-communist frontal organization formed by Allen Dulles in New York City. in 1949. The committee consisted of a list of " A " of powerful US citizens including former ambassador and first NCFE chairman Joseph Grew; Owner of Reader's Digest , DeWitt Wallace; former diplomat and co-founder of Public Opinion Quarterly Dewitt Clinton Poole; and a prominent investment banker in New York, Frank Altschul.
Radio Free Europe received widespread public support from Eisenhower's "Erosenhower Crusade for Freedom" campaign. In 1950, more than 16 million Americans signed Eisenhower's "Freedom Roll" on the way of publicity to over 20 US cities and contributed $ 1,317,000 for the expansion of RFE.
The NCFE mission is to support the refugees and provide them with useful outlets for their opinions and creativity while increasing exposure to the modern world. The NCFE divides the program into three parts: a relationship of exile, radio, and American contact. Although the relation of exile was initially its first priority, Radio Free Europe (RFE) became NCFE's greatest legacy.
The United States is funding a long list of projects to counter the Communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world. The RFE was developed from the belief that the Cold War would ultimately be fought in a political rather than military way. American policymakers like George Kennan and John Foster Dulles recognize that the Cold War is essentially a war of ideas. The implementation of replacement radio stations is an important part of a larger psychological war effort.
The RFE is modeled after US-sponsored Radio in the US Sector of America (RIAS) was originally intended for Germans living in the American sector of Berlin (but more heard in East Germany). Operated almost entirely by Germany with minimal US supervision, the station provides free media for German listeners.
In January 1950, the NCFE obtained a transmitter base in Lampertheim, West Germany and on July 4 of the same year RFE completed its first broadcast aimed at Czechoslovakia. By the end of 1950, RFE began to gather a complete foreign broadcasting staff, becoming more than a "spokesman for the outcasts". Journalist teams are employed for every elaborate language service and intelligence collection system providing up-to-date broadcast material. Much of this material comes from well-connected ÃÆ'  © migrà © Ã… © s network and interviews with travelers and defectors. RFE does not use paid agents in the Iron Curtain and base its convent in an area popular with outcasts. RFE also closely monitors the publication of Communist blocs and radio services, creating an impressive set of information that will serve as a resource for organizations around the world.
In addition to its regular broadcasts, RFE distributes broadcasts through a series of operations that distribute leaflets through meteorological balloons; one such operation, Prospero, sent a message to Czechoslovakia. From October 1951 to November 1956, the skies in Central Europe were filled with over 350,000 balloons carrying over 300 million leaflets, posters, books and other printed materials. The nature of the leaflets varied, and included messages of support and encouragement to the suffering citizens under communist oppression, satirical criticism of the regime and communist leaders, information about dissident movements and human rights campaigns, and a message expressing the solidarity of the American people with citizens of the nations, Eastern European countries. The project serves as a publicity tool to strengthen RFE's reputation as an unbiased broadcaster.
Radio Liberty
While Radio Free Europe targeted satellite country, Radio Liberty is targeting the Soviet Union. Radio Liberty was formed by the American Committee for the Liberation of the Russian People (Amcomlib) in 1951. Originally called Radio Liberation, the station was renamed in 1959 after a policy statement emphasizing 'liberalization' rather than 'liberation'.
Radio Liberty began broadcasting from Lampertheim on March 1, 1953, gaining a considerable audience when covering the death of Joseph Stalin four days later. In order to better serve the larger geographical area, RFE completed the shortwave transmission from Lampertheim with broadcasts from the transmitter base at GlÃÆ'³ria in 1951. He also has a base at Oberwiesenfeld Airport on the outskirts of Munich, employing several former Nazi agents who have been involved in Ostministerium under Gerhard von Mende during World War II. In 1955 Radio Liberty began airing the program to the eastern provinces of Russia from shortwave transmitters located in Taiwan, while in 1959 Radio Liberty began broadcasting from its base in Platja de Pals, Spain.
Radio Liberty expanded its audience by broadcasting programs in various non-Russian languages. In March 1954, Radio Liberty broadcasted six to seven hours every day in eleven languages. In December 1954, Radio Liberty was broadcast in 17 languages ​​including Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tatar, Bashkir, Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, and other languages ​​from the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Maps Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Cold War years
Free European Radio
RFE played an important role in the East European Cold War era. Unlike government censored programs, RFE publishes anti-Soviet protests and nationalist movements. His audience increased substantially after the failed Berlin unrest in 1953 and the highly publicized defection of JÃÆ'³zef? Wiat? O. Hungary service coverage over Pozna from Poland? the riots of 1956 could practically serve as inspiration for the Hungarian revolution.
Hungarian
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 the RFE broadcasts encouraged the rebels to fight and declared that Western support was imminent. This RFE broadcast violates Eisenhower's policy that has determined that the United States will not provide military support for the Revolution. Following this scandal, a number of changes have been applied in RFE including the establishment of Broadcast Analysis Division to ensure that the broadcast is accurate and professional while maintaining journalistic autonomy.
Romanian
RFE is seen as a serious threat by Romanian president Nicolae Ceau? Escu. From the mid-1970s to the overthrow and execution of December 1989, Ceau? Escu waged a revenge against RFE/RL under the "Ether" program. Ether operations include physical attacks on other Romanian journalists working for RFE/RL, including the controversial situation surrounding the deaths of the three directors of RFE/RL's Romanian Service.
1981 RFE/RL Munich bombing
On February 21, 1981, RFE/RL headquarters in Munich was hit by a large bomb, causing damage of $ 2 million. Some employees were injured, but no casualties. The file station opened after 1989 indicates that the bombing was carried out by the group under the direction of Ilich RamÃÆ'rez SÃÆ'¡nchez (known as "Carlos the Jackal"), and paid by Nicolae Ceau? Escu, the president of Romania. However, according to the former head of the KGB K Counter Department, General Oleg Kalugin, the bombing operation is planned for two years by the Department K with the active involvement of the KGB mola inside the radio station, Oleg Tumanov. This revelation directly implies the KGB colonel Oleg Nechiporenko who recruited Tumanov in the early 1960s and was his Moscow curator. Nechiporenko never denied his involvement. In an interview with Radio Liberty in 2003, he justified the bombing on the grounds that RFE/RL was an American propaganda tool against the Soviet Union. Tumanov was extradited back to the Soviet Union in 1986. Nechiporenko's contact with Carlos in the 1970s was confirmed by Nechiporenko himself in an article published by Segodnya in 2000 and by an article in Izvestia in 2001.
Chernobyl Disaster
During the first two days after the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986, the East Block official did not report news of the disaster and there was no full accountability for four months. The Soviet people became frustrated with inconsistent and contradictory reports and 36% of them turned to Western radio to provide accurate and relevant information. Listeners in RFE/RL "jumped dramatically" as "many hours" of broadcast time devoted to the dissemination of life-saving news and information after the disaster. Broadcast topics include "precautions for exposure to radioactive fallout" and report on the suffering of Estonian residents assigned to provide cleaning operations in Ukraine.
Poland and Czechoslovakia
The communist government also sent agents to infiltrate the RFE headquarters. Although some remain on staff for long periods of time, government authorities do not recommend their agents to interfere with broadcasting activities, for fear this may arouse suspicion and reduce their original intent to gather information about radio station activities. From 1965 to 1971, the agent of S? U? Ba Bezpiecze? Stwa (Polish communist security service) managed to infiltrate the station with an operator, Captain Andrzej Czechowicz. According to former Polish Voice of America service director Ted Lipien, "Czechowicz is probably the most famous communist-era Polish spy who was still an active agent while working at RFE in the late 1960s, technically not a journalist, as a historian with training , he worked at the RFE media analysis service in Munich.Over more than five years, Czechowicz returned to Poland in 1971 and participated in a program that aims to shame Radio Free Europe and the United States government. "
Other espionage incidents also included a failed attempt by the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (StB) agent in 1959 to poison salt shakers in the cafeteria of the organization.
In the late 1960s, the turmoil in the Czechoslovakia service led to a number of dramatic changes in the organizational structure. RFE headquarters in New York could no longer manage their subsidiaries in Munich effectively, and as a result the main management responsibility was transferred to Munich, making RFE a European-based organization.
Leader of Polish Solidarity, Lech Wa? Sa and the Russian reformer, Grigory Yavlinsky would later recall secretly listening to the broadcasts despite major disruptions.
Jamming
The Soviet government changed its efforts to block acceptance of Western programs. To restrict access to foreign broadcasts, the Central Committee decided that the manufacturer should remove all components that allow short wave reception from the USSR radio receiver. However, consumers easily find that the necessary parts are available on the black market while the electronics engineers who oppose the idea will happily change the radio back to be able to receive shortwave transmissions.
The most aggressive and extensive form of receiving obstruction is radio interference. It is controlled by the KGB, which in turn is reported to the Central Committee. Jamming is an expensive and difficult procedure, and its efficacy is debatable. In 1958, the Central Committee mentioned that the amount spent on jamming was greater than the amount spent on combined domestic and international broadcasts. The Central Committee has acknowledged that outsmarting was possible and practiced in the Soviet Union. Due to limited resources, authorities prioritize jamming based on location, language, time, and Western transmission theme. The very political program in Russian, broadcasted at prime time to the city center, is considered the most dangerous. Looks less politically threatening, Western music like jazz is often transmitted without falsification. The intensity of jamming fluctuates over time. During and after the Cuban Missile Crisis in late 1962, jamming was intensified. The Cuban Missile Crisis, however, was followed by a five-year period when the jamming of most of the foreign broadcasters stopped, only to intensify again with the Prague Spring in 1968. It ceased again in 1973, when Henry Kissinger became US Secretary of State. Jamming only finally ended after Gorbachev came to power with a decree for that effect on September 29, 1986.
United States
During the Cold War, RFE was often criticized in the United States for not being quite anti-communist. Although his non-governmental status prevented him from full-scale McCarthyist investigations, several RFE journalists including Czech service director Ferdinand Peroutka were accused of being soft against Communism. Fulton Lewis, a strong US and anti-communist radio commentator, was one of the greatest RFE critics of the 1950s. Her critical broadcasts inspire other journalists to investigate how the organization works, including its relationship with the CIA. When CIA relations were exposed in the 1960s, funding responsibilities shifted to Congress.
For more than two decades during the Cold War, the public was bombarded by a massive publicity campaign to shape America's view of Russia and its foreign policy. Ads appear on every TV network, on radio stations across the country and across hundreds of newspapers. The campaign may be the largest and most consistent source of political advertising in American history.
Funding
RFE/RL received funding from the CIA until 1972. The CIA's relationship with radio stations began to break down in 1967, when Ramparts magazine published an exposure claiming that the CIA channeled funds to civilian organizations. Further investigation into CIA funding activities revealed its link to RFE and RL, sparking significant media outrage.
In 1971, the radio station came under the spotlight once again when US Senator Clifford Case introduced the Senate Bill 18, which would spend funds for RFE and RL from the CIA budget, allocate $ 30 million to finance the fiscal year of 1972, and require the State Department to temporarily oversee the radio station. This is only a temporary solution, since the State Department is reluctant to take on significant long-term liabilities.
In May 1972 President Richard Nixon appointed a special commission to negotiate the future of RFE/RL. The Commission proposes that funding come from the United States Congress and that a new organization, the International Broadcasting Council (BIB) will simultaneously connect the stations and federal government, and serve as an editorial buffer between them.
Although both radio stations initially received most of their funds from the CIA, RFE retained a strong sense of autonomy. Under Cord Meyer, a CIA officer in charge of overseeing broadcast services from 1954 to 1971, the CIA took a minimal government intervention position in radio and program affairs.
The CIA stopped funding Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in 1972. In 1974 they were under the control of an organization called the International Broadcasting Council (BIB). BIB is designed to receive allocations from Congress, give it to radio management, and oversee the appropriation of funds. In 1976, two radio stations merged to form Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and added three Baltic language services into their repertoire.
In response to the US Department of Justice requesting RT to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agency Registration Act, the Russian Ministry of Justice also labeled RFE/RL and Voice of America as foreign agents in December 2017.
1980s and the fall of communism
Funding for RFE/RL increased during the Reagan Administration. President Ronald Reagan, a Communist opponent, urged the station to be more critical of the communist regime. This presents a challenge to the RFE/RL broadcasting strategy, which has been very cautious since the controversy over the role alleged in the Hungarian Revolution.
During the era of Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, RFE/RL worked hand in hand with Glasnost and benefited significantly from the new openness of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev stopped the practice of disturbing the broadcast, and dissident politicians and officials could be freely interviewed by RFE/RL for the first time without fear of being persecuted or imprisoned. In 1990, Radio Liberty became the most watched Western radio station broadcasted to the Soviet Union.
His coverage of the August 1999 coup enriched the rare domestic coverage of the event and attracted a wide audience from across the region. The broadcast allowed Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to keep in touch with the Russians during this tumultuous period. Boris Yeltsin later expressed his gratitude through a presidential decree that allowed Radio Liberty to open a permanent bureau in Moscow.
RFE/RL also played an important role in the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which ended the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. After the demonstration of 17 November and the brutal crackdown by riot police of Czechoslovakia, the Cekoslovak RFE/RL service reported that a student, Martin? MÃÆ'd, was killed in the clash. Although the report went wrong - mid-life and well-the story is credited by many sources with the inspiring citizens of Czechoslovakia to join the next (bigger) demonstration that eventually overthrew the communist government.
After hearing about the story, RFE/RL did not run it immediately, but tried to find a second source of support for the story, in accordance with the official RFE/RL policy. While the second source was never found, RFE/RL finally decided to run the story of mud's death after it was reported by several major news organizations, including Reuters, Associated Press, and Voice of America.
In addition, Pavel PechÃÆ'¡? Ek, the Czechoslovakia service director of RFE/RL at the time, was incorrectly granted a visa to enter the country by the Czechoslovak authorities before the demonstration. He reported directly from the demonstration at Wenceslas Square, and was almost the only reporter who covered the event in full and open in Czech for Czech audiences.
After the fall of communism
In 1995, RFE/RL moved its headquarters from Munich to Prague. The Clinton Administration significantly reduces funding and places services under the auspices of the United States Information Agency.
RFE/RL ended its broadcast to Hungary in 1993 and stopped broadcasting to Poland in 1997. In the late 1990s RFE/RL launched broadcasts to Kosovo in Albania and to Macedonia in Macedonia. The broadcast to the Czech Republic continued for another three years under an agreement with Czech Radio. In 2004 RFE/RL stopped broadcast to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Romania. However, on January 31, 2004, RFE/RL launched a broadcast to the former Yugoslavia in Serbo-Croatia (Serbia-Croatia-Bosnia-Montenegro).
RFE/RL states that its mission is to serve as a free replacement press in countries where free press is prohibited by government or not fully established. He maintains 20 local bureaus, but government critics often try to block station activities through various tactics, including widespread annoyances, re-closing of local broadcasting affiliates, or seeking legal reasons to close offices. In many of these countries, RFE/RL and similar broadcasting provide more reliable domestic news than local sources.
RFE/RL says that journalists and freelancers often risk their lives to broadcast information, and their safety is always a big issue, with journalists often being threatened and persecuted. RFE/RL also faces a number of central security issues including cyberterrorist attacks and common terrorist threats. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York, the American and Czech authorities agreed to move the RFE/RL headquarters in Prague from the city center to make it less vulnerable to terrorist attacks. On February 19, 2009, RFE/RL began broadcasting from its new modern headquarters east of the city center.
RFE/RL says that they continue to struggle with authoritarian regimes to get permission to broadcast freely in their country. On 1 January 2009, Azerbaijan imposed a ban on all foreign media in the country, including RFE/RL. Kyrgyzstan suspends Radio Azattyk broadcasting, Russian language service RFE/RL, requesting that the government be able to approve its program. Other countries such as Belarus, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan banned broadcasting to local stations, making the program difficult to access by the average audience.
In 1998, RFE/RL began broadcasting to Iraq. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi Intelligence Service, "to vigorously disrupt Iraqi Radio Free Europe broadcasts". IIS plans to attack headquarters with RPG-7 from windows across the street. The Czech Security Information Service (BIS) foiled the plot.
In 2008, Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged his government to provide assistance to a rape victim after hearing his story on Radio Azadi, the Afghan service RFE/RL. According to REF/RL in 2009, Radio Azadi is the most popular radio station in Afghanistan, and Afghan listeners send hundreds of hand-written letters to the station every month.
In September 2009, RFE/RL announced to launch a new Pashto language broadcast to the Afghan-Pakistani border region.
The following month RFE/RL introduced a one-hour Russian-language daily broadcast, broadcasting to the separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This program, called Ekho Kavkaza (Echo of the Caucasus) , which focuses on local and international news and current events, organized in coordination with RFE/RL's Georgia Service.
On January 15th, 2010, RFE/RL began broadcasting to Pakistan's Pashtun tribal area in Pashto. The service, known as Radio Mashaal, was created in an effort to counter the growing number of local Islamic extremist radio stations broadcasting in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These local stations broadcast pro-Taliban messages and fatwas (religious fatigues) by radical, pro-Taliban clerics.
Radio Mashaal says that he broadcast local and international news with an in-depth report on terrorism, politics, women's issues, and health care (with emphasis on preventive medicine). The station broadcast round table discussions and interviews with tribal leaders and local policymakers, in addition to regular calling programs.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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