Barely two weeks after the Trump administration slashed the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) budget, which funds CIA-run Cold War relics Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VoA), the European Parliament is already debating whether EU taxpayers should cover the shortfall.
Earlier this month, the U.S. government terminated most of USAGM’s contracts after finding “eye-watering” corruption, massive national security violations, and the widespread promotion of anti-American interests. Nothing surprising, considering that the agency, and RFE by proxy, was operating as the media arm of USAID, propping up progressive Democrat interests across the globe.
Yet, the first instinct of Eurocrats upon hearing the news was not to investigate whether RFE was involved in foreign interference operations in their own countries but to ensure it could continue its work as soon as possible. For 2025 alone, Radio Free Europe was earmarked over $150 million—out of USAGM’s $950 million—by the previous administration, and Brussels now wants European taxpayers to foot the bill for their own manipulation.
On Tuesday, April 1st, MEPs in the Strasbourg plenary held a heated debate on the question, and nearly everyone from the far left to center-right was arguing about how it was Europe’s responsibility to ensure that RFE and other ‘independent media’ could keep fighting against totalitarianism.
Like the mainstream, conservative MEPs also recognized RFE’s incremental role in fighting Soviet oppression before 1989, as many of them also grew up listening to it behind the Iron Curtain. But the one thing only they seemed to understand was that the broadcaster’s values have greatly changed since: what was once hailed as anti-Communist propaganda today spreads progressive ideology and anti-conservative messages.
A journalist at the time, Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch (VOX/Patriots) said Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty used to be “great broadcasters who fought against communism,” unlike today:
They were not there to promote anti-national propaganda, gender ideology, or other toxic items of progressive politics, like socialism and communism … against the interests of European citizens.
Hungarian MEP Csaba Dömötör (Fidesz), who’s heading the Patriots’ current transparency campaign against secretive EU-funded NGOs, began by pointing out how absurd it is to call RFE ‘independent’ when over 90% of its funding came from the U.S. government.
“You’re trying to take over policies that failed in America, and not just in this case. In the U.S., they are booting ‘fact-checkers,’ yet the EU Commission is seeking to extend this system which is all about censorship—according to Mark Zuckerberg, not me,” Dömötör said.
If Brussels wants to protect media freedom, he added, it should start by disclosing its contracts with liberal media, which received hundreds of millions while right-wing voices were silenced. On behalf of the Patriots, Dömötör recently submitted 86 freedom of information requests to the Commission about funding to media, NGOs, and fact-checking organizations. All the requests were ignored or outright rejected.
Members from the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group were even more outspoken in their criticism. “When I hear ‘independent media,’ all I can do is laugh. Your independent media is the exact opposite of independence,” Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík said.
You silence and eliminate independent opinions. You fine social media companies that don’t want to censor. You call other opinions ‘extremism,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘pro-Russian propaganda.’
USAGM—RFE’s parent organization—was “burning through nearly $1 billion of U.S. taxpayer money a year,” Uhrík added. “Are we supposed to pay for that now? No, shut them down.”
But perhaps the EU elite’s push to take over the financing of RFE and similar progressive media was best described by Fidias Panayiotou, the 24-year-old independent YouTuber MEP, who has been exposing Brussels’ hypocritical censorship and anti-democratic tendencies since he was elected last year.
“I’m afraid the real question is this: are we scared of losing the truth, or losing control over it?” the MEP asked.
I believe democracy is not about controlling the narrative, it’s about trusting people to choose their own.
