On Friday, the cornerstone of the Radio Free Europe headquarters will be laid

Prague - The construction of the new headquarters for the American station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in the Czech Republic has advanced to the next phase. On Friday, a cornerstone will be laid with the participation of representatives from the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors and Czech political, social, and religious life. The new headquarters will be located in Hagibor in Prague 10.
    The station's management had previously estimated that the entire construction and relocation process could take approximately 2.5 years. According to earlier information, the total costs for construction and relocation will amount to about 14 million dollars (approximately 313 million CZK).
    The radio will be newly located in a modern five-story building. The project also includes a main entrance building, a service entrance building, and two outdoor water surfaces. The architectural solution was designed by Cigler Marani Architects.
    The relocation of the radio station from the city center from the former Federal Assembly building near Wenceslas Square, from which RFE/RL has been broadcasting since 1995, began to be considered after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in September 2001. Since then, the building has been under security protection, separated from its surroundings by concrete barriers.
    Broadcasting of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty often serves as the only source of objective information for countries without freedom of speech. The station has focused on the countries of the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and considers countries with Muslim populations, such as Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, to be important as well.
    Since 1998, it has been broadcasting, for example, in Persian and Arabic; since 1999, in Albanian for Kosovo; since 2002, in Avar, Chechen, and Circassian to the North Caucasus region; and further in Dari and Pashto to Afghanistan. Conversely, Czech broadcasting was discontinued in September 2002, and in January 2004, Bulgarian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Slovak broadcasting ended after most of these countries joined the EU and NATO. Currently, it broadcasts to about twenty countries.