COPENHAGEN

Radio Free Europe has filed a lawsuit against the US Agency for Global Media and its officials to prevent the termination of its federal grant, it announced Wednesday.

The case, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that cutting funding for Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) – including Radio Liberty – violates federal law and the US Constitution, which grants Congress exclusive control over federal spending, said a statement.

“The complaint makes the case that denying RFE/RL the funds that Congress appropriated for it violates federal laws – including the US Constitution, which vests Congress with exclusive power over federal spending,” it said.

Steve Capus, RFE/RL’s president, said in the statement: “This is not the time to cede terrain to the propaganda and censorship of America’s adversaries. We believe the law is on our side and that the celebration of our demise by despots around the world is premature,”

The US Agency for Global Media, which also oversees Radio Free Asia, halted financial support for both organizations, affecting broadcasts in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, China, and North Korea, following US President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating significant budget cuts.

The White House has defended its move to defund the agency, saying it will "ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”

Campus said earlier this month: “The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies ... Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker ... Without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies who depend on us for accurate news and information each week won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”

On Feb. 9, Elon Musk, Trump’s top campaign donor and head of the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, an unofficial group, endorsed the shutting down of Radio Free Europe on X, saying: “Yes, shut them down. 1. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Hello?? 2. Nobody listens to them anymore. 3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”