Saving Radio Free Europe for Democracy's Sake

I am writing as a citizen of Poland, in which large parts of our society for over 40 years could hear, however jammed, the free and independent voice of Radio Free Europe (RFE). That voice coming to us from the outside, independent from various political pressure, is still needed.

The decision to dissolve RFE and Radio Liberty (RL) assumes that Eastern Europe is a fairly stable part of the world. And yet the democratic institutions in this part of Europe are still fragile and the process of systematic transformations is far from being included. This is evidenced by the tragic events in former Yugoslavia, the political and economic chaos in Russia and in other regions of the former USSR.

Poland too is not yet a stable country. Economic problems might lead to social upheavals, which could undermine the fragile basis of its newly constructed social and economic order.

At the time of a growing wave of nationalism in the whole of Europe, Radio Free Europe, in support of friendly and peaceful cooperation among nations, plays a tremendously important role that can hardly be taken over by our domestic media. Marek Edleman, Lodz, Poland

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