Just a few days after the BBC announced it is closing its Romanian service on 1 August, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has announced that it will do likewise, also on 1 August. However, unlike the BBC World Service, RFE/RL’s Romanian-language broadcasts to Moldova and the Transdniester region will continue.
The Romanian Service began experimental broadcasting on July 14, 1950, and was fully operational by May 1, 1951. For years, its broadcasts were a thorn in the side of Romania’s communist rulers who, according to a 2006 Romanian government report, may have been responsible for the deaths of three RFE/RL Romanian service directors.
In a 2006 address to Parliament, Romanian President Traian Basescu paid homage to the RFE/RL journalists who, he said, “fought with altruism and passion for the knowledge and utterance of the truth…Their unforgettable [Radio] Free Europe broadcasts were the moral conscience of Romanians.”
(Source: RFE/RL/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
