US state media gets emergency cash injection
Cash-strapped US state broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is set to receive a portion of a grant which was withheld by the administration of US President Donald Trump, the broadcaster announced on Monday. A sum of $7.46 million will be released by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
Kari Lake, Trump-appointed special adviser to USAGM, has pledged to shrink the agency to its minimum possible legal size, describing the body as “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer” and arguing that it is “not salvageable.” She has also claimed to have uncovered assorted irregularities within the agency, including “massive national security violations” and alleged infiltration by spies and terrorist sympathizers.
The money to be released covers the period between March 1 and 14, a day before US President Donald Trump signed an executive effectively dismantling USAGM operations.
“We hope the imminent disbursement of two weeks’ worth of funding that Congress appropriated to RFE/RL will keep our lights on until the court rules on the broader case,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.
“It is unlawful to deny us the funds that Congress has already appropriated to RFE/RL for the rest of this fiscal year,” he added.
A US Justice Department lawyer representing the USAGM, Abigail Stout, however, argued that the agency is within its right to terminate the grant should RFE/RL breach the provisions outlined in the International Broadcasting Act. “The statute actually contemplates that the agency could terminate a grant,” she said.
Founded in the early 1950s by the CIA front organizations, Radio Free Europe (RFE) broadcast pro-Western propaganda into the Eastern bloc in Europe, while Radio Liberty (RL) focused on the Soviet Union itself. In the 1970s, they merged into a single entity.
USAGM has been overseeing US state-funded international media outlets, including RFE/RL, Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, and several other foreign focused not-for-profit media entities that are funded by the US budget. While the outlets insist they provide unbiased coverage in around 100 countries, they have been widely regarded as Washington’s propaganda arms.
