STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump's administration has been trying to cut funding to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The service's job is to bring independent journalism to countries with limited press freedom and counter Russian propaganda. That service is still operating, and Ben Bathke tells us how.
BEN BATHKE, BYLINE: Hidden in the crowds on the streets of Latvia's capital, Riga, there are people from both sides of the biggest conflict in Europe since the fecond world war on the run - refugees from Ukraine and hundreds of Russian media workers who fled here after the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Journalists like Artyom Radygin, who lives in fear, given Moscow's sabotage and hybrid warfare efforts in the region.
ARTYOM RADYGIN: It's daunting and depressing. If Putin decides to reach you, I think he will. I do not pay anywhere in my name. I do not drive taxi to my home. I do not order any deliveries.
BATHKE: Radygin is one of 46 Russian nationals who work for Radio Free Europe - or RFE - in Riga. In 2022, the Russian authorities launched bankruptcy proceedings against its bureau in Moscow. Proceedings the outlet said was part of a yearslong pressure campaign to silence independent reporting. So RFE opened its office here the next year. The forced relocation of its journalists was part of a mass exodus of Russian media workers begun after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RADYGIN: (Non-English language spoken).
BATHKE: Twenty-five-year-old Radygin co-anchors a weekday evening news show on Russia. Along with six colleagues, he fact-checks statements by the Kremlin. But in comments people make under the videos, he feels pushback.
RADYGIN: Even if they are our regular audience, they really often pick up the narratives of Russian propaganda. So right now, it's even more important to be the beacon of light for the audiences.
BATHKE: Radygin and his colleagues fear for their jobs. As part of an effort to reduce what it calls wasteful spending, the Trump administration started trying to shut down RFE in March. But the European Union, the Netherlands and Sweden stepped in to help keep RFE afloat. Editor-in-chief Nicola Careem says RFE programs reach around 9% of Russia's adult population, so some 10 million people.
NICOLA CAREEM: We are the only international media to provide 24/7 television channel in Russian for audiences outside Russia, as well. Most of the regions that we work in, by default, people there don't have access to free or fair press. And so we're fulfilling what I would call lifeline journalism.
BATHKE: With its radio, digital and television programs, RFE says it reaches close to 50 million people every week in 27 languages and 23 countries from Southeastern Europe over the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia to South Asia. And the work itself is harder than ever.
Svetlana Osipova is a reporter with the investigative unit Systema. She often uses the social media platform VKontakte - often called the Russian Facebook - to communicate with sources.
SVETLANA OSIPOVA: I'm afraid to text people in Russia in VKontakte because FSB and Security Service can read this whole thing. Even if this person wouldn't like to talk to me, but answers me, it's already a crime.
BATHKE: And in Russia, the government has declared RFE an undesirable organization. So anyone caught sharing, commenting or even liking RFE content faces fines or imprisonment. But there is hope. RFE Russian service director Andrey Shary, for one, believes in RFE's resilience.
ANDREY SHARY: We have for 70 years already battling Kremlin propaganda. We used to do it during Soviet times, and we survived, and we won. So now it's another epoch. We also stay, I think, better than others because we have this tradition and have this tremendous experience.
RADYGIN: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
BATHKE: Anchor Radygin is talking to a colleague about today's show. He says he misses home and his family, but has to be here. The future of his country, he says, depends on people getting the truth.
Ben Bathke, NPR News, Riga.
(SOUNDBITE OF COLOURBOX'S "PHILIP GLASS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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