Musk calls for shutting down Radio Free Europe, VOA

KABUL (Pajhwok): The chief of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has called for shutting down American-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, claimed that nobody listened to the two media organisations anymore.

US Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell wrote on his X handle Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America were paid for by American taxpayers.

He said: “It is state-owned media. These outlets are filled with far left activists. It’s a relic of the past. We don’t need government-paid media outlets."

In response to comments by Grenell, Musk wrote on X::"Yes, shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves, while torching $1b/year of US taxpayer money."

Meanwhile, former US representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad wrote on X: “The administration should thoroughly review both VOA and Radio Free Europe.”

According to him, those who closely follow those programmes report that, far from supporting US policy, several of their country-focused programmes appear to be staffed by activists rather than journalists, who use the taxpayer-funded airtime to undermine and work against US interests.

He believed US taxpayers should not be funding anti-US propaganda.

VoA was founded in 1942 and is the largest international multimedia news organisation in the United States, broadcasting programmes in more than 45 languages for audiences around the world.

VoA is fully funded by American taxpayers and operates within the framework of the US Agency for Global Media.

In 1994, the US Congress passed the International Broadcasting Act of the United States. This law requires VoA journalists to be reliable, accurate, impartial, comprehensive, balanced and to reflect the cultural and social diversity in the United States.

Additionally, in 2016, Congress reaffirmed the National Defense Authorization Act, which emphasises that journalism and reporting must continue independently and impartially.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty began its experimental broadcasts for Afghanistan in Dari and Pashto in 2002, and on January 30, the capital of the Czech Republic, hosted the inauguration ceremony of the Afghanistan section of the radio.

sa/mud