Trump Budget to Cut Almost $2Mln for Russian, Ukrainian-Language Broadcasts

US President Donald Trump’s proposed budget will cut $64 million of funding for international broadcasters including nearly $2 million for Russian and Ukrainian-language programing, the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) 2018 budget request submitted to Congress revealed.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Andrew Feinberg — Funding for Russian-language broadcasts from Voice of America (VOA) will be cut from 2017 levels of $7,048,000 to $6,911,000 in 2018, for a decrease of $137,000, according to the budget document. Ukrainian-language VOA programming will be cut $34,000 from 2017 levels, which were funded at $1,683,000.

In addition, the VOA Moscow bureau’s operating budget will be cut from $357,000 to $351,000 for the 2018 fiscal year.

Russian and Ukrainian language programs from Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty will receive even larger funding cuts, with RFE’s Russian language 2018 budget being cut $961,000 from $7,649,000 to $6,688,000. Ukrainian language programming from RFE will be cut $832,000, from $4,863,000 to $4,031,000 in 2018.

The BBG said that RFE’s funding will be used to promote democratic values and institutions by reporting the news in countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.

The remaining funding, the BBG said, will be used to confront Russian disinformation by focusing on factual information and fact-based alternatives to Russian propaganda.

The BBG is the US government’s civilian international media agency, which operates Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Alhurra TV, Radio Sawa, and Radio and TV Marti. BBG broadcasts provide content in 61 languages to more than 270 million people in 100 countries each week.