Appeals Panel Pauses Ruling to Release RFE/RL’s April Funds
RFE/RL still hasn’t received funding for April as a divided appeals court panel grants the government’s request to stay the funding order pending appeal
(WASHINGTON) — By a 2-1 vote today, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a stay pending appeal of the April 29 district court order requiring the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) to immediately disburse Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s congressionally appropriated funds for April. Today’s decision means RFE/RL will not receive those desperately needed funds, approximately $12 million.
The dissenting member of the panel wrote that “RFE/RL faces existential harm from [the appeals court’s] stay of the district court’s temporary restraining order.”
RFE/RL has filed an emergency petition asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (sitting en banc) to reconsider and reverse the panel’s stay decision.
RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said:
“We’re confident the law is on our side, but this delay means RFE/RL needs to continue reducing staff and programming. Every day without our congressionally appropriated funds, we’re losing more of our audiences to the state-sponsored propaganda networks of China, Russia, and Iran, who are eagerly filling the information vacuum the U.S. is needlessly and recklessly leaving behind.”
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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach a weekly audience of nearly 50 million people in 23 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.
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