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Opening Remarks 

Dear Mr Chairman, 

Honourable Members of the European Parliament, 

For seventy years, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty have done exactly what they say on the tin.

They have spoken of a free Europe and the value in liberty.

They have spread hope for those under the fierce grip of state-controlled media and censorship.

They did this in two ways: 

One, by acting as surrogate media – providing news for countries that censored the press, and two, by cross-reporting; meaning that, ‘The Radios’, as they were affectionately called, told Poles what the Hungarians were doing, and told Estonians what the Kazakhs were up to.  And for seventy years, by these two methods, the journalists of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty have empowered listeners to make informed choices; to know that they have free will; and that their free will matters.

For those who were living in countries occupied by the Soviet Union, or in the communist countries like Yugoslavia, where I grew up, U.S. funding for Radio Free Europe kept our ears and hearts open to another life. U.S. funding was – as the U.S. campaign was called – a crusade for freedom.

But the world is unfortunately experiencing a decline in freedom. As Freedom House underlined in a report this year, not even the most powerful democratic states will be able to guarantee the freedom and prosperity of their people should current trends continue.

Do you think people want their freedom less today than those who were trapped in the communist cage?

Has the value of freedom declined?

Does the world need fewer advocates for freedom?

Of course not.

With more unmediated content on social media, more threats to the information environment, journalism is more vital today than ever before.

As a former journalist who experienced the fall of the Berlin wall in Berlin, I speak out of my own experience.  

The United States’ court decisions on this year’s funding to Radio Free Europe will be key for Radio Free Europe /Radio Liberty to continue operating, and this is key for us.  

We need to protect Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. If we do not, we hand a gift to autocrats the world over.

The world needs free journalists like Radio Free’s Alsu Kurmasheva, who was imprisoned by Russia under false accusations.

It needs the European Union to provide more emergency support to journalists at risk, not less. We have helped over 12,000 journalists over the last decade, from strengthening their legal rights, to funding investigative journalism and supporting NGOs that monitor press freedom.

The European Endowment for Democracy will continue supporting independent media in restrictive environments, or in countries like Moldova, where Russian interference is constant and comes with a lot of funding.  

The world needs the European Union to be a refuge for independent media, including from Russia and Belarus, so the journalists and human rights defenders can continue their work, holding their political and business elites to account and exposing corruption.

It needs us all to call out countries for preventing independent journalists from simply doing their jobs. But in this world, where freedom is slipping through our fingers, it is clear we need to take a new approach to media freedom, including within the European Union.

I will give you three examples of how.

First, through the European Media Freedom Act, which will apply in full as of August this year. This is not just a piece of legislation. It is our message to the world that Europe stands for free media. That in Europe, we fight to ensure journalists are not spied on while they do their work to unveil the truth; that in Europe, the public media is not a prop for government propaganda but a lifeline for democratic choice. The Annual Rule of Law reports also provide important monitoring and recommendations on media freedom in the European Union and monitoring from enlargement countries.  

Second, a free media needs critical readers and independent thinkers. It needs us to be active participants, because we know a lie travels halfway across the world while the truth is getting its pants on. We know free speech is not the same as speech free from lies.  
And in a free, liberal society, we have to live with this, but we do not have to live without fighting against it. On the contrary. We must be curious and critical, always checking the information and questioning what we get. We have to educate ourselves. We have to be critical to information sources, and we have to be able to recognise where media is free and where it is not.

Third, for a free media we must deal more effectively with Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, or ‘FIMI’. FIMI is not just disinformation. It is not a communications issue. It is not my truth versus your truth. It is a hybrid war tactic and warrants a response to match how dangerous it is. We have to expose it, sanction those responsible and build up our own arsenal to fight back. This is what we are now working on. And every journalist, knowingly or not, is also fighting FIMI by reporting on topics our adversaries want to be hushed up.

Honourable Members, 
In this House of Democracy, let me quote American journalist Walter Cronkite: “freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy”.

But a free press is never a given. It is hard won and so very easily lost. Last year’s report from Reporters without Borders shows this all too clearly. If we want a free press, we have to fight for it and defend it every day.

But let me conclude with a simple truth and a message of hope. Even behind bars in Russian detention, Alsu Kurmasheva underlined her resolve to find beauty and joy in the smallest things and we see that in the letters she wrote.

You cannot stop a writer from writing, just as you cannot imprison a lust for life or a will to tell the truth.

And that, Honourable Members, is why freedom must and will prevail.

Thank you.

Watch the video (starting at 19:39:44)


Closing remarks  

Madame Chairwoman,  

Dear honourable Members, 

It was interesting to listen, because many of you have experienced, listening to this radio. So, we all know that today we do not speak only about Radio Free Europe. You have said that we are speaking about us. And we are speaking about the European values.  

That is why I am very happy that freedom has champions here in the European Parliament, and that free media has champions here in the European Parliament.

And there is a common understanding here in the European Parliament of our collective responsibility to promote and defend media freedom as a core pillar of democracy.  

If we allow independent media to be silenced, we hand a victory to autocrats. We allow them to control our information space. We allow them to suppress dissent.  

In the European Union, where freedom prevails, we can never allow this to happen. And we should not allow that journalists are put in jail, like Joakim Medin, the Swedish journalist now in Turkey.  

And in a world where facts are increasingly contested and distorted, our investment and protection of independent, public interest journalism is more important than it has ever been – and we live in 2025.

The European Parliament is an essential ally in this fight.  

And I, as well as journalists all over the world, are counting on your continued support.

Thank you. 

Watch the video (starting at 19:47:00)