Radio Free Europe’s Hungarian Service Shuts Down After U.S. Funding Cut

Budapest — Szabad Európa, the Hungarian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, halted live operations on Friday after the U.S. administration moved to withdraw funding for the outlet that provided independent reporting to Hungarian audiences.

The service had originally been closed in 1993 and was reinstated in 2020 after the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Congress approved a relaunch in response to a sharp decline in media freedom in Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

In its closing statement, Szabad Európa said its journalists had 'worked with dedication to provide the best of journalism and objective information to Hungarian readers.' The outlet thanked its audience for their trust and support and said its articles will remain available online even after live broadcasting ends.

'We thank you for the trust, interest and support we have received from our audience,' the organization said.

The shutdown comes amid broad cuts by the Trump administration to public and international broadcasters funded by the U.S. government, including reductions affecting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, PBS and NPR.

Kari Lake, a senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media who was appointed by President Trump, notified Congress earlier this month that the agency would stop funding Szabad Európa. In her letter she wrote that the service's operations in Hungary were 'not aligned with U.S. national interests' and that they 'undermined' the administration's foreign policy.

Two days later, on the same day President Trump hosted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House, Lake posted on X that 'The Globalists are more than welcome to hate our ally Viktor Orbán,' and criticized taxpayer-funded programming that she said sought to 'destabilize the Hungarian regime.' Orbán publicly thanked her for the move.

Media landscape in Hungary

Since returning to power in 2010, Orbán has overseen the expansion of a pro-government media network. Many independent outlets have closed or been acquired by figures with close ties to the government. Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has described those acquisitions as creating 'a true media empire subject to his party’s orders,' estimating that the ruling party controls roughly 80% of the country's media market resources. In 2021 the group listed Orbán among global media 'predators,' the first leader of an EU member state to receive that designation.

Earlier this year, Orbán's ruling party proposed legislation that would blacklist and fine critical media outlets receiving foreign funding or grants, a move that critics say further threatens press freedom in Hungary.

This closure removes a U.S.-funded independent voice in Hungary at a time of heightened international concern about media pluralism and the role of taxpayer-funded international broadcasting in supporting independent journalism abroad.