A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
One of America's most popular radio stations doesn't actually air in the U.S. Radio Free Europe reaches a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries and 27 languages. In March, the Trump administration pulled the plug on its funding. It brought it back pending a court decision, but Radio Free Europe's future is now unclear. The organization says closing it down would be a gift to America's enemies. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley talked to people in Ukraine about its impact.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Designer Mykhailo Smetana (ph) enjoys a latte at a Kyiv cafe. The 55-year-old says, as a youth in the Soviet Union, his family listened to a collection of Western networks on shortwave radio to know the truth.
MYKHAILO SMETANA: Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, BBC, Voice of America, of course. They were just altogether called the voices. Basically, if we wanted to know something, we would turn to the voices.
BEARDSLEY: Smetana says the voices were often jammed, so hard to listen to, but people still tuned in.
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UNIDENTIFIED RADIO HOST #1: This is Radio Free Europe.
BEARDSLEY: Radio Free Europe began broadcasting to Soviet satellite countries in 1950. Three years later, Radio Liberty was beamed into the Soviet Union. It was initially paid for by the CIA until 1971, when Congress began to fund it publicly. Ivana Stradner is a specialist in Russian influence operations with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (ph).
IVANA STRADNER: Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty had a massive impact. They broadcast objective news coverage about issues that state media suppressed in those authoritarian systems, and they also gave a platform to dissident voices.
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THE BEACH BOYS: (Singing) A bushy, bushy blonde hairdo. Surfing USA.
UNIDENTIFIED RADIO HOST #2: Rhythm guitar with (ph) Beach Boys.
BEARDSLEY: An excerpt from RFE's Russian service. By broadcasting American jazz and rock 'n' roll during the Cold War and after, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty infused American ideas and culture into a generation, a soft power play for hearts and minds. The information war did not end with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Stradner remembers the role Radio Free Europe played in her home country Yugoslavia in the 1990s, countering Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
STRADNER: During the Milosevic regime in the '90s, the information space in Serbia was closed and completely controlled by Milosevic's propaganda. Access to the truth was possible thanks to media such as Radio Free Europe, which was truly a light in the media darkness.
BEARDSLEY: Turning off that light now, she says, is like surrendering to Russia and China in the ongoing information war. More than ever, the Kremlin projects its message beyond Russia's borders to Europe, the U.S. and Africa through TV outlets like Russia Today.
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MARGARITA SIMONYAN: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: The head of that network, Margarita Simonyan, on Russian state TV recently, celebrating RFE's possible demise, calling it an awesome decision by President Trump. The European Union has sanctioned her as a leading Kremlin propagandist.
VALERI: (Non-English language spoken).
(CROSSTALK)
BEARDSLEY: ...Engineers.
ZOYA CHABANA: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: I meet retirees Zoya Chabana (ph) and her husband Valeri (ph) walking arm-in-arm in central Kyiv. The engineers remember listening secretly to Radio Liberty. They say it exposed Soviet lies. I ask them for an example.
CHABANA: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: "Like with dissidents," says Chabana, "we were told they were enemies of the people and found out they were actually heroes." Then they say there was the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April of 1986, only 120 miles from Kyiv. The authorities lied about the radiation and encouraged children to take part in May Day celebrations, says the couple.
CHABANA: (Non-English language spoken).
BEARDSLEY: "Please," they say, "tell Americans to protect and promote your media outlets. We read them. We listen to them. And we still need them."
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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