After the sudden halt of funding by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, the EU plans to step in to help save long-term media radio Europe/RFE/RL Radio (RFE/RL).
Kaja Kallas, the group's foreign policy head, told reporters at the EU Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels on Tuesday that 5.5 million euros ($6.2 million) would be provided to "support important work in European radio and radio Europe".
“This is a short-term emergency fund for the safety net of independent journalism,” she added.
Trump suspended all RFE/RL funds in March with other ABC, including Voice of America, to cut government spending.
The cuts are also politically motivated and part of controlling and curbing news media that will not stay away from their prospects, government critics say.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this month cutting federal subsidies to two U.S. public broadcasters PBS and NPR, accusing them of biased reports and spreading "left" propaganda.
RFE/RL's lawyers have been in operation for 75 years and received a $12 million order from a U.S. federal judge last month to restore the Trump administration's grant.
The money has not been sent out, as lawyers say the service will be closed in June without funds.
The EU's funding will not cover the work of the global media, but will focus on interests closer to the group's agenda, Karas said on Tuesday.
"So our focus should really be to help European radio work and operate in countries near us, which are very reliant on outside news," she said.
The EU's top diplomat said she hopes that 27 EU member states will also provide more funds to help Europe's free radio for a long time. Carras said the group has been looking for “strategic areas” as Washington cuts life-saving foreign aid and it can help you.
The store's company is based in Washington, D.C., and its news headquarter is in the Czech Republic. The service airs programs in 27 languages in 23 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, and employs more than 1,700 people.
The export was severely criticized and banned for its coverage of the Ukrainian war.
In 1950, in the early days of the Cold War, European radio broadcasts began to broadcast, to several Eastern European countries that had become Soviet satellites. A few years later, Free Radio Free Radio began to broadcast to Russia. Both were initially funded by the U.S. Congress through the Central Intelligence Agency.