Legal win for RFE/RL over April Funding

In Legal Win, RFE/RL Receives April Funding; Lawsuit Continues for Remainder of FY 2025 Funds

On 13 May, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) received its overdue congressionally appropriated funds for the month of April. During the six-week delay, RFE/RL was forced to reduce vital programming and staff, depriving audiences in closed societies of news and information about the world.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) released $12 million after the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit administratively stayed an earlier decision by a divided three-judge panel of that court that had allowed USAGM to avoid complying with a district judge’s temporary restraining order requiring USAGM to pay RFE/RL its April funds. The move gives the full appeals court time to reconsider the three-judge panel’s reasoning.

In his April 29 order, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia emphasized that Congress enacted, and President Trump signed, a law funding RFE/RL this fiscal year. He wrote: “It is, after all, Congress that makes the laws in this country. In this case, for example, it was Congress who ordained that the monies at issue should be allocated to RFE/RL.”

Although this is a welcome step, RFE/RL will continue its lawsuit to secure all the funds that Congress appropriated for its operations this fiscal year.

RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said: “When we go dark, dictators and autocrats have the world’s front pages to themselves. Our audiences depend on RFE/RL for critical news about the Russian war in Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, China’s growing influence, and toxic corruption in repressive regimes. When autocrats are strengthened, America is weakened.

“To carry out its congressionally mandated mission, RFE/RL needs its funds for the rest of this fiscal year.”

Other law suits have been brought in connection with the effective closure, or attempted closure of other US international broadcasters including Voice of America. It had been thought that staff might be able to start to return to work earlier in May. However, this has not happened and VoA remains off the air and its English-language website has not been updated since March. It is difficult to see how this situation will be resolved. If it is, the task of rebuilding audiences and their trust around the world will be immense.