U.S. Urged to Pull the Plug on Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty

Declaring that the Cold War is over and that Eastern Europe now enjoys a generally free press, an advisory commission Thursday urged the U.S. government to scrap Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, the services established four decades ago to challenge the Communist monopoly on information behind the Iron Curtain.

The commission said the Voice of America should continue to operate and would be enough to spread the American message.

Malcolm S. Forbes Jr., chairman of the board that supervises the services, challenged the recommendations. He said the radio services are “the most cost-effective instruments we have for influencing events in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.”

The dispute, expected to be resolved when President Clinton submits his budget proposals to Congress next month, is like a time-machine ride to the dawn of the Cold War. Radio Free Europe was created by the CIA in 1949 to broadcast by shortwave to the countries of Eastern Europe. Radio Liberty was established two years later to broadcast to the Soviet Union.

The stations, both based in Munich, Germany, were said to be financed by voluntary contributions. But after their links to the CIA were revealed in 1971, they were taken over by the Board for International Broadcasting, which the U.S. government openly paid for--last year to the tune of $211 million.

The commission also recommended closing TV Marti, which broadcasts television programs to Cuba. It said Havana so effectively jams the broadcasts that almost no one can see them.