Before 1989, Radio Free Europe was the main source of information for Romanians who were fed up with communist propaganda. Financed by the CIA, they broadcasted from Munich, in West Germany, and had sections dedicated to each Eastern Bloc country.

The authorities in Bucharest constantly tried to jam the station. In the first decades of communism it was risky to listen to this station for fear of imprisonment, but during Ceaușescu’s regime this became a common occurrence, though still forbidden. Starting in the '70s, this station's influence was so great that presenting cases of those arrested or opposing communism could lead to an improvement of their imprisonment conditions, or even to their release.

The staff of the Romanian section of the station was the target of intimidation, as was the case with section chief Emil Georgescu and Monica Lovinescu, the latter being gravely physically assaulted. A few notable figures that worked for Radio Free Europe, such as Noel Bernard, Vlad Georgescu, and Cornel Chiriac, died under suspicious circumstances.