But Acting RFE/RL President Jeff Trimble told The Prague Post in an interview that renewing the lease was not a sign that the broadcaster's move — so far five years in the making — is in jeopardy.

"The process is going along very smoothly," he said, "and things are going along as anticipated."

RFE/RL reached a deal in July 2005 to build a new facility in Prague 10, but construction has yet to begin and likely won't be finished until some time in 2008, Trimble said.

The lease on the current site on Vinohradská, across from the National Museum and beside the busy Wilsonova expressway, is scheduled to expire at the end of 2007 and will have to be renewed, Trimble said. The station moved its headquarters there from Munich in 1995 upon the invitation of then-president Václav Havel.

Plans to relocate the RFE/RL headquarters began almost immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The station was seen as a terrorist target due to its pro-democracy message and its funding ties to the U.S. Congress.

In its early years, the station geared its broadcasts toward the Soviet Union and European countries behind the Iron Curtain. Since the end of the Cold War, its focus has shifted and the station now broadcasts in predominately Muslim countries.

Moving the offices to a safer site became an immediate priority, Trimble said. Preliminary offers to house the network came from countries across Europe, including Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia, but the station decided to stay in the Czech Republic.

Moving abroad would be a major financial and logistical burden, and the station has nurtured close ties with its Czech host, Trimble said.

"The Czech Republic has really played a leading role in the international community to support dissidence. I feel a great empathy with that," he said.

Thirty possible sites in and outside Prague were considered before officials settled on a site in the Hagibor area of Prague 10. Security was the primary concern, Trimble said, the new site needed to have ample space around it, something sorely lacking at the stations current location, the former Czechoslovak Federal Parliament building.

Bureaucratic hurdles

Also, local infrastructure needed to be well developed, and for the sake of staff and visitors the site had to be easily accessible by public transport.

In July 2005, an agreement was signed between the broadcaster and the Luxemburg-based Orco Property Group. The "build-to-lease" contract means the developer will foot the cost of building the new broadcast facility. RFE/RL will be a paying tenant in the building, with an initial 15-year lease and additional renewal periods every 10 years thereafter.

Construction has been stalled by a complex series of legal and bureaucratic hurdles, said RFE/RL spokesperson Anna Rausová.

"That doesn't mean there isn't any work going on," she said. "It's just the opposite." Behind the scenes, work is well under way obtaining the necessary permits and licenses for construction, she said.

Once the building is complete, relocating the entire station without affecting its broadcast schedule will be a costly and complicated endeavor, Trimble said. In May of this year, Foreign Affairs Minister Cyril Svoboda presented the RFE/RL board of governors with a check for $1.2 million (26.4 million Kč), which will assist with the costs of relocation. Congress has pledged a further $13.5 million to pay for the move.

In addition to the cost of moving, the new arrangement means RFE/RL will be a paying tenant for the first time in this country. During its residence beside Wenceslas Square, the station has paid only a symbolic rent of 1 Kč per day to its landlord, the Finance Ministry.

At the new site, the network will pay rent to Orco Property Group. Both Rausová and Trimble refused to discuss the specific cost, but said the funds would come from Congress.

Congress gives the station roughly $70-75 million a year.

The new rent arrangement represents a change though. "It's a little bit of a misunderstanding that we've been in the [current] building for free," Trimble said.