“The end of an era,” writes a newspaper in Switzerland about the closure of the Free Europe site
The state of the media landscape is a concern for people all over Southeast Europe, writes the Swiss newspaper NZZ, in a material about the closure of Europa Libera, not only in Romania, but also in Bulgaria. Tuesday, March 31, is the last day the Romanian site will publish articles.
The Free Europe Press Service, one of the areas affected by US President Donald Trump's decision to cut federal government spending, played a key role for Europeans living behind the Iron Curtain, being an alternative source of information at a time when the official news program was dominated by the propaganda of communist regimes.
In Romania, the radio station was received until 2008, and in 2018 it returned as a website, against the background of the increase in the phenomenon of disinformation, underlines the quoted source.
“The disappearance of Free Europe Romania is a great loss for our media landscape,” said journalist Cătălin Tolontan, for NZZ.
The Swiss publication also writes that in recent years several publications have appeared in Romania, recalling the Recorder with its documentaries. But “the situation regarding independent reports on current political issues is a critical one”, says Tolontan, in the cited source.
“This is particularly important for a functioning democracy,” says the journalist.
Journalists from NZZ say that Europa Libera enjoys a good reputation and offers alternative points of view with reliable reporting in countries where the media landscape is under a strong influence of the state or oligarchs.
A closure decision was also made regarding the Bulgarian service of the publication. In Hungary, Radio Szabad was forced to cease broadcasting in November.
“The 52,341 articles remain accessible”
The Europa Libera website is closing from today, March 31. The publication announced, however, that the archive will remain available to readers.
“The 52,341 articles published by Europa Liberă Romania remain accessible, in their entirety, to anyone who wants to read them, check them or continue where we left off,” said the editors.
Free Europe is the heir to the Radio Free Europe service, a radio station received in Romania during the communist period and until 2008, after the entry of our country into the EU. It returned here in 2018 amid the rise of the disinformation phenomenon.
Radio Free Europe played a crucial role in informing the population living under communist regimes in Europe and reported on all the revolutions that occurred behind the Iron Curtain. For the Romanians, he was the first “spokesperson” of the Revolution of 1989, the most important event ever addressed by the Romanian service of the station.
