‘A Beacon of Democracy’ – EU Looks to Resume Funding for RFE

At a time when EU leaders have been forced to step up defense spending, humanitarian aid and other assistance once provided by the United States, top diplomats in Brussels are now looking to support media in Eastern Europe that promote the values of democracy, as the US administration of Donald Trump has eschewed such principles at home and abroad.

During a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, foreign ministers discussed the situation of Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe, which essentially has been de-funded by the Trump regime in Washington.

“It is sad to hear that the US is withdrawing its funding [for RFE]. Now, the question for us is, can we come in with our own funding to leave or fill the void that the USA is leaving,” said Kaja Kallas, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

“The answer to that question is that not automatically, because we have a lot of organizations who are coming with the same request to us,” she added. “So this is the tasking to our side to see what can we do,” Kallas concluded.

She called Radio Liberty a “beacon of democracy”.

Founded in 1950, RFE started out with broadcasts to Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. In 1953, it began broadcasting to the Soviet Union as well, in Russian and 17 other national languages, according to its website.

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Germany Plans to Boost Ukraine Aid by €3B

The German foreign minister said Berlin plans to introduce changes to its constitution to boost security, which would also bring additional funding for Kyiv.

But he newly installed Republican president in the White House has spent his first two months systematically gutting government programs, starting with the Agency for International Development, and eliminating foreign aid across the board, with exception of military aid to Israel. Military funding for Ukraine has been paused and reconsidered in that period, dependent upon Kyiv’s willingness to obey Trump’s demands.

Moreover, Trump has launched an assault on the media in general, at least those outlets that report unfavorable news about his administration and, now, it seems, any messaging not in line with the Kremlin’s interests.

For example, the White House has excluded the 159-year-old Associated Press from its press conferences because the AP refused to use the Trump-created term “Gulf of America” in place of the “Gulf of Mexico”, which has been printed on maps since the 1500s.

More recently this month, the administration has launched legal challenges to precedent set by the 1964 Supreme Court ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which inferred that the US Constitution’s First Amendment protected the media from libel suits as long as the reporting was factual.