Radio Free Europe, with roots in the Cold War, suspends operations in Russia
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Jamie Fly, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president and CEO, said in a statement Sunday that the move was a result of “the Putin regime’s assault on the truth.”Since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has moved swiftly to limit free speech and dissent, forcing Western companies to reassess. Bloomberg News, the BBC, CNN International and ABC News have also suspended their news reporting operations inside Russia. The Kremlin has blocked access to Facebook inside the country.The suspension strikes at the heart of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Radio Free Europe was founded by U.S. officials in 1950 and had broadcast into Eastern bloc countries including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Three years later, Radio Liberty, which was also founded by U.S. officials and was a separate organization, began broadcasting into the Soviet Union.In recent weeks, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said it had faced increasing pressure in Russia. The organization also said that it refused requests by the Russian government to delete information about the Ukraine invasion. After the refusal, Russian authorities blocked access within the country to its websites, the organization said.In the statement, Fly said the Russian government is “now branding honest journalists as traitors to the Russian state,” adding that its journalists will “continue to tell the truth about Russia’s catastrophic invasion of its neighbour” from outside of the country.