Legendary Athens, Ga., band R.E.M. at the moment launched an up to date music video set to a remix of their debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” recorded by producer Mitch Easter in his North Carolina studio in April 1981.
The brand new video “celebrates the seventy fifth anniversary of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty station, established by the USA 75 years in the past to broadcast information and knowledge the place a free press is both banned or beneath menace,” a launch from the band said.
The mission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, in response to its web site, is “to advertise democratic values with uncensored information.” The stations attain 47 million month-to-month listeners throughout 23 nations and 27 languages. The group falls beneath the U.S. Company for World Media (USAGM), an impartial federal company overseeing public service media networks.
R.E.M.’s video is timed to honor World Press Freedom Day on Could 3. World Press Freedom Day was first proclaimed by the U.N. Basic Meeting in December 1993, following the advice of UNESCO’s Basic Convention. Its 2025 theme explores “challenges on the intersection of expertise and press freedom,” but additionally arrives when a free press — together with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — is beneath assault.
“Whether or not it’s music or a free press — censorship anyplace is a menace to the reality in all places,” R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe mentioned on Friday. “On World Press Freedom Day, I’m sending a shout-out to the courageous journalists at Radio Free Europe.”
On March 14, President Trump’s Government Order titled, Persevering with the Discount of the Federal Forms, “initiated measures to remove the non-statutory parts [of USAGM] and features to the utmost extent per relevant legislation. USAGM and the retailers it oversees will probably be diminished to their statutory features and related personnel will probably be diminished to the minimal presence and performance required by legislation.”
A federal choose this week ordered the Republican administration to revive $12 million to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that was appropriated by Congress, the Related Press reported Friday. Attorneys for the service mentioned it might be compelled to close down in June with out the cash.
In its reporting about Trump’s Could 1 govt order to chop all federal funding PBS and NPR, PBS mentioned Friday that efforts to dismantle RFE/RL “have confronted pushback from federal courts, who’ve dominated in some instances that the Trump administration could have overstepped its authority in holding again funds appropriated to the retailers by Congress.”
Together with the “Radio Free Europe” video, R.E.M. is donating the proceeds from vinyl gross sales of its Radio Free Europe 2025, a five-track EP that includes a 2025 remix by longtime collaborator Jacknife Lee and authentic producer Mitch Easter’s 1981 remix “Radio Free Dub,” to RFE/RL, a personal nonprofit company.
