Jul 16 2008
Radio Freedom
Historical
text about the assembling of the two most important radios - Radio Freedom RFERL -in the Eastern Europe combat to totalitarian communist regimes.
Their History
The RFERL has always been a very polemic issue, therefore
the police was many times required to protect the building itself and the
workers has well.
The Radio Free Europe Inc started after the 2nd
world war in the year of 1949 as a non-profit, private corporation to broadcast
news and current-affairs programs to the countries located after the Iron
Curtin. Two years later was created the Radio Liberty wish had the same very
goal as the 1st radio. Both of these radios were founded with the
help of CIA Central Intelligence Agency. Therefore the two radios were combined
in one in the year of 1975 with the new name RFE/RL, Inc. Although in the year
of 1971 CIA stopped with the founding being all the responsibility passed to a
presidential appointed Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). The BIB
duties were transferred to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) in1994,
working like this till nowadays.
Their goal
Radio Free Europe’s goal was not only to presumably inform
its listeners but to bring about the peaceful demise of the Communist system
and the governments of what were known as the satellite nations: Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Radio Free Europe
attempted to fulfill these objectives by serving as a surrogate home radio
station, an alternative to the controlled and partly called domestic press. The
radio was a creation of some of the most prominent architects of America’s early
Cold War strategy, especially those who believed that the Cold War would
eventually be fought by political rather than military means. American
policymakers acknowledged that the Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas
dividing the world. The United States,
who acted through CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the Communist
appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the
developing world. Meaning the radio started to be a way of propaganda against
the communism in its own countries. Like this natives of the countries where
this radio was implanted would have conscience of the world out of the Iron
Curtin and want the change and freedom to their own countries.
During the Cold War some members of the Warsaw Pact hemmed
in the radio signals. Although in 1988 the Soviet Union
allowed the radio signals, with the objective of localizing and following its
audience and journalists. Meaning that everyone know about this radio and as
Lech Walesa, a polish leader said it was an element of extreme importance for
the end of the communist regimes. After communism collapse there would be no
reason for the radio to continue, at first, however RFE/RL had been a great
contributor for the freedom of Eastern Europe
and important people like Czech President Vaclav Havel wanted the radio to keep
the work. Nevertheless the radio had to stop its work in some areas like Hungary, Poland. Making the situation harder
the BBG ended its found to Czech Republic,
but Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Slovakia and Bulgaria were
closed in 2004.
In 1998 the Persian Service began broadcasting to Iran, and Radio Free Iraq began broadcasting in
Arabic to Iraq.
And after the year 1999 Albania
and Latvia were opened as
well as Afghanistan and North Caucasus.
Nowadays RFE/RL has 18 services in 28 languages.