“What made [RFE] important was its impartiality, independence, and objectivity…not only for dissidents but for the entire listening public, who receive not only truthful news about various ideals and other lifestyles, but also hope.”

“For 25 years he [Jan Nowak-Jeziorański] was a dominant voice at Radio Free Europe, that great beacon of hope that brought so many through the darkest hours of communism. Nowak's commitment to democracy is an inspiration to all Americans, and this commitment is still being felt in his native Poland.”

“It is not only in the past that Radio Free Europe, which has even been proposed for the Nobel Prize, has rendered a significant service to the Hungarian people and to all those who played a prominent role in the course of the peaceful change of regime in Hungary, but, in my opinion, it continues to be indispensable today and in the future as well on the palette of free Hungarian telecommunication.”

“As the new Prime Minister of Hungary, I take this opportunity to express the heartfelt gratitude of the nation to Radio Free Europe for its almost 40 years of activity. Radio Free Europe has rendered a great service to us: It has given us the gift of truth about our own country and the world at large, and has done so at a time when telling the truth was counted as a crime against the state.”

Former Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova recalled that RFE's broadcasts "brought a small island of freedom to people's homes.” She added that RFE's journalistic professionalism would still be of value in post-Communist Europe today, as corruption issues threaten democracy in the region.

“Radio Liberty was our connection with our own country.”

On the importance of Radio Free Europe’s relationship to the trade union: “The degree cannot even be described. Would there be earth without the sun?”

“Radio Free Europe has been a lot more important than the armies and the most sophisticated missiles. The ‘missiles’ that destroyed Communism were launched from Radio Free Europe, and this was Washington’s most important investment during the Cold War. I don’t know whether the Americans themselves realize this now, seven years after the fall of Communism, but we understand it perfectly well.”

“The attempt at complete censorship failed gloriously; it was Radio Free Europe that broadcast the Romanian Revolution live.”

“Many assumed that with the end of the Cold War, the raison d'être of Radio Liberty might actually cease to exist, I have always been, and remain, in opposition to this notion. Why? Because many challenges and questions await response. Therefore, rather than yield to complacent voices, you must remain the stalwart champion of democratic ideals.”

“All through the years of communism, the Radio provided the only avenue for free exchange of information, for free journalism and also the only, or rather, the main source for communication between the opposition at home with the public, the general society, and the nation, I believe that our society owes Radio Free Europe immense gratitude for the role it has played in the past.”

“With the Cold War gone, some observers have found it reasonable to hand over the mission of domestic enlightenment to newly liberated local media. But in fact, as Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty contend, the new democracies are fragile, and local media in many places are shallowly rooted. Aspiring democrats look to the foreign radios to keep the foreign media honest and to prevent anti-democratic backsliding --- crucial goals”

“My mouth is too small to talk about the impact of Radio Mashaal on our region, but what I can say is that this radio has rendered unprecedented services to the Pashtoons throughout their history.”

“For many of my contemporaries and for me, RFE/RL has been a source of free information and a window into the free world. It is clear that RFE/RL has contributed to the fall of the totalitarian regimes in Central Europe. I am proud that now RFE/RL broadcasts from Prague, so we can pay back a certain part of our debt and, at the same time, also participate in the flow of free information to Russia and other post-Soviet countries. It is as important for the citizens of those countries now as the broadcasts from Munich were for us.”