History
A Leader In Courage And Innovation, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service Wins Burke Award
RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service was expelled from Uzbekistan in 2005 by then-President Islam Karimov. Only months before, Uzbek security service forces opened fire at peaceful protesters in the southeastern city of…
North Caucasus Service’s Online Library Preserves Chechnya’s Literary Heritage
In early 2015, as a step toward preserving Chechnya’s literary heritage, the North Caucasus service launched an online library available for free to users with both text and audio versions of classics…
The Georgian Service Interviews General Giorgi Kvinitadze
In this recording from May 1968, RFE/RL’s Georgian Service interviewed General Giorgi Kvinitadze, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Independent Republic of Georgia, two years before the General’s death.
How Liberty Came To Russia
On August 19, 1991, a military coup was attempted in Moscow. Instead of reporting on the event, Soviet television broadcast the ballet, Swan Lake.
A Place of Heroes and Hope, RFE/RL’s Headquarters at Prague-Hagibor
RFE/RL broadcasts daily from Prague-Hagibor, a site connected for more than a century with offering help and hope to people in need.
Chernobyl: ‘A Radioactive Emergency Alarm Has Come From Denmark’
“American journalists are reporting from Moscow that a catastrophe has taken place at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant not far from Kyiv” – these were the words with which RFE/RL’s…
Radio Free Europe’s Audience Reach Behind the Iron Curtain
The data graphics below demonstrate Radio Free Europe’s weekly audience reach from 1963 to 1989 in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Audience reach for other foreign broadcasters is shown.
Remembering RFE/RL’s Fallen Journalists
RFE/RL journalists, often at great personal risk, work to spread knowledge and combat lies to ensure that people even in the world’s most oppressed nations have access to the truth.
Lofty Balloon Campaign Brought RFE Audiences Uncensored Information, Across Frontiers
With its first on-air message on July 4, 1950, Radio Free Europe (RFE) began its mission of providing uncensored news and information to people denied the right of access to…
RFE/RL Remembers Its Fallen Afghan Colleagues
On the anniversary of the deaths of RFE/RL journalists Sabawoon Kakar, Abadullah Hananzai, and Maharram Durrani, who were killed in coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Kabul in April 2018, RFE/RL…