BRUSSELS: The EU on Monday (Mar 17) warned that President Donald Trump’s freeze on US-funded media retailers, together with Radio Free Europe, risked “benefitting our widespread adversaries”.
Trump’s administration on the weekend began shedding workers at Voice of America and different broadcasters together with Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) after freezing their funding.
“We see these media retailers actually as beacons of reality, of democracy, and of hope for hundreds of thousands of individuals all over the world,” mentioned European Fee spokeswoman Paula Pinho.
“Freedom of the press … is vital for democracy. And this choice dangers benefitting our widespread adversaries,” she mentioned, with out naming nations, teams or people.
Pinho added that the freeze could be mentioned throughout a gathering of EU international ministers in Brussels on Monday.
Based by the US through the Chilly Struggle to counter Soviet propaganda, RFE/RL was banned throughout the communist bloc together with former Czechoslovakia, the place regimes usually jammed its sign.
The US-funded media have since targeted on nations like Russia, China and Iran.
Requested whether or not the European Union would “fill the void” left by the US, Pinho mentioned it will not all the time be doable for the bloc to take action.
“We’re reiterating our assist,” she instructed reporters, including: “We can not all the time step in for the US and for regardless of the US stops doing.”
Trump has already eviscerated the US’ help company and its training division.
The media funding freeze impacts many different US retailers in addition to Voice of America and RFERL, together with Radio Farda, a Persian-language broadcaster blocked by Iran’s authorities, and Alhurra, an Arabic-language community established after the Iraq invasion within the face of extremely vital protection by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.
Iran, China and Russia have all invested closely in state media retailers created to compete with Western narratives and to push out authorities traces to international audiences.
