Donald Trump has issued a presidential order decreeing massive cuts to Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other US international broadcasters. According to media reports, around 1,300 employees have already been placed on administrative leave. Since the Cold War, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has played a key role as an independent voice in autocracies and dictatorships worldwide. Ukrainian and Russian commentators fear the worst.
Voice of truth stifled
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The Ukrainian historian and Rada deputy Volodymyr Viatrovych emphasises the historical role of the two US broadcasters on Facebook:
“In the Soviet Union, Voice of America and Radio Liberty were described as ‘enemy voices’ and subjected to relentless attacks with jammers to prevent them from bringing the truth to the people behind the Iron Curtain. Neither the Soviet Union nor the curtain remained. And now the voices that spread the truth have also fallen silent. Not because of jamming transmitters, but because a lack of willingness to use the truth and the complex instruments for communicating it. For those who want to deceive, spreading lies on social media is faster, cheaper and more effective.”
Washington is playing right into Moscow’s hands
Russian Journalist Sergei Aslanyan rakes the US president over the coals on Facebook:
“Trump is uneducated and primitive enough to have decided to destroy Voice of America and Radio Liberty. Why should America need radio when it has Trump’s megalomania? Why waste money on words if they don’t yield any concrete profits? Why spend funds when there’s a gold-plated president who trades in peace and war? Russia is conducting the information war seriously and successfully, although up to now Moscow had feared that it might lose. Now, however, it’s receiving victory from the hands of its main enemy – America.”
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