Looking for a headline aggregator for Europe? The Rundown is one of the best

Are you looking for a headline aggregator covering Europe, Russia, and South Central Asia?  The Rundown, compiled by Zach (@ZachPrague) at Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), is one of the best.  The mission of RFE/RL is 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.”  Naturally, the headlines Zach gathers focus on this mission.

There’s another twist to The Rundown: the first section, “RFE/RL in the Media,” can often be subtitled “Smith-Mundt Violations” as it spotlights stories global media that cite RFE/RL reporting or report on RFE/RL activities.  When the media citing RFE/RL is in the U.S. that is a Smith-Mundt Act violation, according to the amended Act and not the original legislation.

For example, the following is in today’s Rundown:

# “The Atlantic” cites RFE/RL reporting on Turkmenistan
# “CNET” cites RFE/RL reporting on Internet restrictions in Iran

On that note, if you’re in the U.S., don’t click on any of the links above, let alone visit RFE/RL’s website, as Senator Fulbright and Senator Zorinsky successfully pushed legislation making it illegal for that  information to be available to you, a person in the United States.  (The legislation doesn’t discriminate on citizenship, so whether you’re American or not, don’t do it.)

If you want to get The Rundown, leave a comment below or email me and I’ll forward your email to Zach, as he sends a daily email of The Rundown.  It would be nice if RFE/RL had a convenient URL for The Rundown, something like http://rferl.org/rundown, but no.  You must know the URL to each individual Rundown or just navigate the website (from the home page, click Press Room then The Rundown).

4 thoughts on “Looking for a headline aggregator for Europe? The Rundown is one of the best

  1. Martins, please confirm that the URL you gave is for the current Rundown at any given date. In other words, tomorrow I will click on that URL and get Zach’s Rundown for January 10 or will I get January 9’s Rundown? Either way, it is not a simple URL for the user and I still recommend RFE/RL make a landing page with some crazy address like rferl.org/rundown.Best,
    Matt

  2. Hi Matt,
    Yes, that page features the most recent “Rundown,” with previous issues moving down the list as each new “Rundown” is posted.

    rgds, Martins

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