WikipediaExtracts:Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Extracted from Wikipedia --
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is an American government-funded international media organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analyses to Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, where it states that "the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed." RFE/RL is a private 501(c)(3) corporation and is supervised by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent government agency overseeing all international broadcasting services that receive American government support. Jeremy Bransten is the organization's acting editor-in-chief.
Presented in 27 languages to 23 countries, RFE/RL has been headquartered in the Czech city of Prague since 1995 and has 21 local bureaus with over 500 core staff and 1,300 stringers and freelancers in countries throughout their broadcast region. Additionally, there are 680 employees at the organization's headquarters and corporate office in Washington, D.C.
During the Cold War, RFE was primarily aimed at broadcasting to Soviet satellite states, including the Baltic states, and RL targeted the Soviet Union itself; RFE was founded by the National Committee for a Free Europe as an anti-communist propaganda source in 1949, while RL was founded two years later. They received funds covertly from the CIA until 1972. The two organizations merged in 1976. Communist governments frequently sent agents to infiltrate RFE's headquarters, and the Soviet Union's KGB regularly jammed the organization's radio signals. Between 1949 and 1995, RFE/RL was headquartered at Englischer Garten in the German city of Munich. Another broadcast site was operated at the Portuguese village of Glória do Ribatejo from 1951 to 1996. Since the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the organization's European operations have been reduced significantly.
