The closures follow that of RFE Hungary and reflect funding cuts by US Congress. The Moldovan service is secure for this year but external funding is being sought.
The Bulgarian and Romanian services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) have ceased operations after 7 years.
The closures follow the shutdown of RFE/RL’s Hungarian service in November 2025 and are the result of Donald Trump administration’s drive to end federal funds for RFE/RL, Voice of America and the other public media outlets supported by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
The Prague-based RFE/RL – which provides high-quality reporting in more than 20 language versions, including Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian, Armenian and Persian was has been forced to cut 90 per cent of its freelancers and furlough about 25 per cent of its staff since an executive order issued in March 2025 aimed at closing USAGM.
For media analysts, the closure of RFE’s Romania service (Europa Libera Romania) signals an erosion of editorial pluralism within a limping media environment.
The Romanian service employed about 20 people and was the successor to the original Radio Free Europe broadcaster, which played a crucial role under communism when Romanians were deprived access to unbiased news.
It kept remained operational until 2008, the year after Romania joined the EU. In 2019, it re-established its Romanian service in 2018, amid mounting concerns in the US and EU about democratic backsliding in the region.
Reports say that Moldova’s RFE/RL’s service (Radio Europa Libera Moldova) will function this year, though staff levels are low.
Romanian Free Europe Service was launched on July 14, 1950 as part of Cold War efforts to counter communist propaganda behind the Iron Curtain.
Free Europe began experimental broadcasts in 1950 and became fully operational on 1 May 1951, with daily broadcasts from Munich becoming the main independent source of news.
Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu called it “the worst nightmare”, launching Operation “Ether” with physical attacks, espionage and suspicious assassinations of directors.
In 2006, President Traian Basescu called him the “moral conscience of Romanians” for his role in the collapse of communism and integration into NATO/EU.
The 24/7 daily broadcasts stopped on August 1, 2008 after 58 years, but continued in the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria in Romanian and Russian.
On January 14, 2019, under the coordination of Sabina Fati, Free Europe launched the multimedia platform romania.europalibera.org with news, reports and analysis.
Since September 2020 it was headed by Elena Vijulie Tănase, who doubled and as diversified content in video, field journalism and investigations
