Le Moment RFE/RL: Resurgent Authoritarians in Central, Eastern Europe Make the Case for the Freedom Radios

(Washington, D.C.): Serious political crises now
unfolding Serbia, Belarus and Slovakia have at least two
things in common: First, popular efforts to foster
democratic institutions in these nations are being
strenuously resisted by totalitarian-minded rulers. And
second, the rulers’ success in this regard hinges
critically upon their ability to deny what is, arguably,
the most pivotal of such institutions — a free press.
Indeed, in Belgrade, Minsk and Bratislava, governmental
censorship, jamming and/or outright take-overs of the few
local independent print and broadcast media are being
effectively employed to stifle dissent.

This practice has been most prominently on display
over the past few days in Serbia. There, President
Milosevic’s regime has brazenly interfered with reporting
by — and even shut down completely — B-92, the
capital’s only non-government-controlled radio station.
Until its power was cut off, this station was an
invaluable source of reporting on the mass demonstrations
against the government’s electoral fraud, corruption and
ruinous warmongering in Bosnia and Croatia. Reports just
in suggest that B-92 has been allowed to resume
operations, but there is no guarantee that it will remain
in business. In the absence of information
sources like B-92, the Serb people get nothing but a
steady diet of propaganda aimed at discrediting
Milosevic’s opposition and precluding the emergence of
any mass movement that might result in his being toppled,
at long last, from power.

While similar machinations are in evidence in Belarus
and Slovakia, as well, the fact that they are being
employed in Serbia by a man the U.S. government has
desperately sought to rehabilitate from communist thug
and war criminal to statesman and cornerstone of the
Dayton Accords has embarrassed official Washington into
considering ways to counter the Milosevic
press-suppression program. At least part of the answer
should be self-evident: Utilize the Freedom
Radios — Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty — to
provide authoritative, timely and essential information
to the people of Serbia and, for that matter, their
counterparts in other states in the region where
democracy is no sure-thing.

RFE/RL’s broadcasts complement — rather than
duplicate — those of the Voice of America. For example,
where stepped-up VOA transmissions to Serbia announced by
the State Department yesterday will feature what amount
to interviews with B-92 personnel, RFE will be
broadcasting segments originated and produced by that
independent station. This distinction helps contribute to
the perception among listening audiences that the VOA is
America’s worldwide radio station while RFE/RL are
“their own.”

Unfortunately, as a June 1996 Roundtable Discussion
co-sponsored by the Center for Security Policy, the Nixon
Center for Peace and Freedom and National Review Magazine
amply demonstrated,⁽¹⁾
the cumulative effects of years of efforts by the
Bush and Clinton Administrations and the 103rd Congress
have gratuitously hamstrung these surrogate radios.
Programming hours have been reduced; at least one
national broadcast service has been eliminated
altogether; RFE/RL transmitters have been
“federalized” (read, removed from the Freedom
Radios’ control/use); and the U.S. government is
currently slated to stop supporting the Radios’
operations altogether by December 1999.

The Bottom Line

Developments in the Balkans and beyond illustrate the
folly of these steps. The Center for Security Policy
believes that an urgent effort must be mounted to
increase Radio Free Europe’s broadcasting to Serbia in
Serbo-Croatian. It understands that for under
a million dollars, the current three hours of daily
broadcasting could be more than trebled for a year —
providing the people of Serbia via short- and medium-wave
with at least 10 hours of quality programming per day
of the sort of information necessary to freedom and peace
in that region and that Milosevic is determined to deny
them.

Other steps that are in order to preserve and
reinvigorate the Freedom Radios as an instrument for
promoting liberty throughout their broadcast areas
include:

• Forestall further dismantling of the
  Radios’ operations and capabilities.
  Most importantly in this regard, further
  “federalization” of RFE/RL transmitters
  (notably the 15 powerful 250 kilowatt short-wave
  transmitters in Gloria, Portugal) must be
  suspended. This will preserve vital
  flexibility needed to adjust the allocation of
  programming and use of short- and
  medium-wavelength frequencies so as to optimize
  these surrogate radios’ coverage where it is
  needed most.
• Shelve plans to cut back or liquidate the
  Czech and Polish services and revisit the already
  completed elimination of the Hungarian service.
  Developments elsewhere in the region demonstrate
  the shortsightedness of the assumption that
  underpinned these initiatives, namely that the
  tide of democracy in Central Europe would prove
  irreversible. And similarly,
• Rescind the direction promulgated by
  Congress in 1994 that all federal funding for
  RFE/RL would end in December 1999. The
  present, lean operations of the Freedom Radios
  must enjoy continued, dependable support from the
  U.S. government for the foreseeable future if
  they are to continue to provide a service that
  now has to be recognized as vital to American
  interests in the regions served by RFE/RL.

The executive branch should utilize whatever
authority it has to effect these changes immediately.
To the extent that some may require congressional
involvement and approval, every effort should be made to
secure such assent at the earliest possible moment next
year. In any event, a fresh look at the unique
capabilities of the Freedom Radios and their role in
preserving and expanding the freedoms hard won in the
Cold War should be an important part of Congress’
confirmation and oversight hearings in 1997.

– 30 –

1. See the Summary of
a Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=96-P_68at”>No. 96-P68 (Attachment), 9 July
1996).