TRUMP CUTS

Radio Free Europe’s Bulgaria, Romania Services To Close

February 17, 2026 
Balkan Insight
By Marian Chiriac

The Bulgarian and Romanian services of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) are set to cease operations on March 31, sources with knowledge of the situation told BIRN, ending two of the most prominent Western-supported journalism initiatives active in the contemporary media environment.

The closures follow the ending of RFE/RL’s Hungarian service on November 21 and are the direct result of the Trump administration’s drive to choke off 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 – has been forced to cut 90 per cent of its freelancers and furlough about 25 per cent of its staff since the Trump administration issued an executive order in March 2025 aimed at closing USAGM.

A measure of predictability returned to RFE/RL’s operations on February 3 when President Donald Trump signed the 2026 appropriations bill, which includes funding for USAGM for the next fiscal year but is roughly 25 per cent down from previous years. Congress had appropriated 148.7 million dollars for RFE/RL in the fiscal year 2025 Congressional Budget Justification.

For many local journalists and media analysts, the closure of RFE’s Romania service (Europa Libera Romania) primarily signals an erosion of investigative capacity and editorial pluralism within an already strained media environment. “This is more than the shutdown of a newsroom – it amounts to the extinguishing of a symbol,” media analyst Petrisor Obae told BIRN.

“At a time when the avalanche of fake news, disinformation and manipulation is greater than ever, the need for a benchmark of responsible journalism is more acute than at any other moment. Yet instead of reinforcing a trusted source, the Trump administration opted to close it down,” he added.

No official statement has been issued by Europa Libera Romania and, so far, none of the journalists have departed the Bucharest office, appearing to remain fully engaged in their reporting duties. In informal remarks, some staff members said the organisation has consistently provided the editorial independence required to carry out their work professionally and without interference.

The Romanian service currently employs around 20 people and is the successor to the original Radio Free Europe broadcaster, which played a crucial societal role during the Cold War, when it served as one of the few credible sources of uncensored information for the population at a time of strict state control over the domestic media. Radio Free Europe maintained operations in Romania until 2008, the year the country consolidated its status as a member of the EU. After a decade-long hiatus, it re-established its online-only Romanian service in 2018, amid mounting concerns within the US administration about disinformation and democratic backsliding in the region.

The Bulgarian service (Svobodna Evropa) had not responded to BIRN enquiries by time of publication.

Questions have inevitably turned to the future of RFE/RL’s Moldovan service (Radio Europa Libera Moldova), particularly given the small yet strategically important Southeast European country faces growing interference from Moscow in its elections and media landscape. Sources say the service is safe for this year, though is operating with a skeleton crew. Its longer-term future could be secured with proposed external funding from EU and/or non-EU sources, though the upheavals at RFE/RL have complicated this effort.


Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.