After nearly 60 years of providing uncensored news and information to the people of Romania, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty‘s Romanian-language service will cease broadcasting to Romania on August 1, 2008. However, Romanian-language broadcasts to Moldova and the Transdniester region will continue.
“During the course of nearly six decades, hundreds of RFE/RL journalists, researchers and analysts displayed extraordinary bravery, dedication and commitment to a free and independent press in Romania, often at great risk to themselves and their families” says RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin. Their contributions to the collapse of communism and in helping to pave the way for a democratic Romania’s entry into institutions such as NATO and the EU, will never be forgotten.”
The Romanian Service began experimental broadcasting on July 14, 1950 and was fully operational by May 1, 1951. For years, its broadcasts were a thorn in the side of Romania’s communist rulers who, according to a 2006 Romanian government report, may have been responsible for the deaths of three RFE/RL Romania service directors.
In a 2006 address to Parliament, Romanian President Traian Basescu paid homage to the RFE/RL journalists who, he said, “fought with altruism and passion for the knowledge and utterance of the truth Their unforgettable [Radio] Free Europe broadcasts were the moral conscience of Romanians.”
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent U.S. government agency that oversees all U.S. international broadcasting, is closing the Romanian service as RFE/RL focuses its broadcasting efforts in places such as Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics.
“As the threat of communism recedes in Europe, RFE/RL’s mission is changing,” says BBG Governor Jeffrey Hirschberg. “The latest threat to democracy and free expression is authoritarianism. That’s why RFE/RL is directing its resources so heavily to places where repressive rulers deny their people access to free and independent media.”
Since Romania’s accesion to the EU last year, media competition has increased dramatically and Romanians now have access to more than 70 daily newspapers, 300 private FM radio stations, cable TV and the Internet.
In 2005, Romanian filmmaker Alexandru Solomon released his documentary, Cold Waves, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the RFE/RL Romanian service’s struggle against Communist Dictator Nicolai Ceausescu during the Cold War.
Solomon writes in the film’s synopsis: “I grew up with it. Every evening, in an underground atmosphere, my father listened to Radio Free Europe as anyone else did. It meant more than information. While Ceausescus propaganda had less and less to do with reality, Free Europes Romanian section provided – apart from news some hope.”
The RFE/RL closure is in parallel with the end of the BBC’s Romanian service.