Radio Free Europe closes in Bulgaria, Romania

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AFP) — Radio Free Europe's Bulgarian service will cease operations on March 31 due to a lack of U.S. funding, two staff members told AFP Wednesday, following a similar announcement in Romania.

U.S. President Donald Trump suspended funding for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) last year alongside financing for other U.S. broadcasters as part of his campaign to slash government spending.

Bulgaria's Svobodna Evropa team is actively working on a solution that "will allow us to continue serving our audience," one of the sources said, requesting anonymity pending an official statement.

RFE's Romanian-language service, Free Europe Romania, has also said it will close on March 31.

"This is certainly bad news. And not just for my colleagues and me," its director Elena Vijulie Tanase wrote on Facebook earlier this month.

RFE management in Prague did not respond to AFP's questions for comment.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said in a statement to AFP that it regretted the closures, "which will have a negative impact on their citizens' right to trustworthy information," especially in Bulgaria where there is little independent media.

RFE's editorial team in Bulgaria comprises about 15 journalists, with its video content frequently garnering tens of thousands of views on social media.

In November, Radio Free Europe's Hungarian Service said it was closing down under orders from the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Trump's administration said last November it would shut Szabad Europa at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's request, during the nationalist leader's visit to Washington.

Bulgaria and Romania were among the first countries covered by RFE/RL when it was founded in 1950.

During the Cold War, the radio station, funded in part by the CIA until the early 1970s, played a key role in disseminating information beyond the Iron Curtain, despite repeated attempts by the communist authorities to jam its signal and the harassment of its journalists.

Bulgarian-language programming was discontinued in 2004, and Romanian-language programming in 2008, before being relaunched in both countries in 2019.

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By Agence France-Presse