Written by Olivia Hiskett
Elon Musk’s attempts to drastically reduce US overseas aid and spending have recently found a target in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Currently headquartered in Prague, the US sponsored radio has long mirrored Western ventures into influencing global politics. Today, the station broadcasts into nations such as Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan, providing vital information unfiltered by national propaganda and information blockades. The station continues to fulfil its original mission as an instrument of diplomacy. Musk has declared the broadcasters as “left-wing radicals” on his X account. However, the history of the service cannot be further from Musk’s characterisation.
Radio Free Europe was first broadcast from Frankfurt in 1950, through a crackling tape recorded in New York. Aimed at shaping the minds of audiences behind the Iron Curtain through “ideological warfare”, by 1953, it was broadcasting in seventeen languages. For decades, the journalistic team provided localised and broad coverage, supporting democratic values and free market ideologies. Its early employees were often emigrees from Eastern Europe, who viewed their home as a place of untruth. Attempting to unmask many of the inconsistencies and shortfalls of the Soviet system, the radio acted as an arm of the CIA until 1971. As President Truman’s speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors declared “this is a struggle, above all else, for the minds of men”. The use of radio was part of a wider tactic of ideological persuasion in the Unites States’ Cold War arsenal, as they countered the propaganda that emanated from communist nations. They felt they could have a revolutionary impact, especially in counties they considered Western leaning such as Czechoslovakia and Poland.
One of the most experimental projects of Radio Free Europe began in 1951, as the station defied its confines to radio waves, as it sent balloons across the borders of Communist Eastern Europe. The effort dropped leaflets and political souvenirs that reflected the messaging found on their broadcasts, encouraging disobedience from the Soviet line. These campaigns continued until 1956 and were often called the “Winds of Freedom”. In August 1956, as many of five hundred and twenty balloons were set afloat each hour. In the picture below, two men can be seen inflating a balloon intended for Czechoslovakia. “Svoboda” means “peace” or “freedom” in Czech, as well as other Slavic languages.
Figure 1, Radio Free Europe, Lofty Balloon Campaign Brought RFE Audiences Uncensored Information, Across Frontiers, https://about.rferl.org/our-history/
However, it has been acknowledged that the editors of Radio Free Europe often took for granted that their position in the West gave them unequally accessed to a ‘truth’. For listeners in the East the idea of ‘truth’ was not always a binary concept, as they were subject to conflicting accounts of reality within a regime. Considering the narrative within the Soviet bloc that Western imperialism was a real risk to national safety, the looming presence of a foreign radio station across the bloc may have served to complement a Soviet conception of the US – that of a conniving evil entity full of misinformation.
Despite this, the value of Radio Free Europe in providing accurate and even lifesaving news was evident during the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986. Two days after the accident, the broadcast became the first source to inform the public of the event and began to distribute information on how to mitigate harm from its Ukrainian service. The dispersion of potentially lifesaving information from Radio Free Europe, rather than state media, exposed the geo-political priorities of the Soviet Union above the welfare of its citizens. This discrepancy between western democracy and the Soviet Union was not missed by Radio Free Europe, as on April 28th its Ukrainian service broke the news that radiation had been detected in Scandinavia: “In Sweden, about six hundred workers were evacuated from the Forsmark nuclear power plant because the Swedes believed that the radiation might be coming from there. Human security is always of great importance in democratic Western countries.”
Today, Radio Free Europe works as a news outlet in twenty-three countries and is editorially independent despite its funding from US congress. Although it was founded as an arm of the United States Cold War efforts, it developed into a lifeline of information and alternative narratives and still provides this to active war zones and dictatorships. According to Radio Free Europe, they are currently “prioritizing digital platforms and innovative censorship circumvention strategies”, in order to make democratic values and independent journalism available to all that may need it. Perhaps Musk’s turn away from the station signifies his lack of respect for the democratic principles on which Radio Free Europe was founded.
Bibliography
Radio Prague International, 10/02/2025, https://english.radio.cz/musk-calls-closure-prague-based-radio-free-europe-and-voice-america-8842451
Radio Free Europe, https://about.rferl.org/article/lofty-balloon-campaign-brought-rfe-audiences-uncensored-information-across-frontiers/
Arch Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio, Liberty, 2000
Thomas Kent, 25/07/2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/opinion/letters/radio-free-europe.html
Radio Liberty Archive, Chernobyl Disaster Report (1986)
Retrospect Journal 