Radio Maryja

Signs such as this one in Łagów are a common sight in rural Poland, indicating the local frequency of the station.

Radio Maryja is a Catholic and nationalist radio station and media group founded (in Toruń, Poland, on December 9, 1991) and ruled by Father Director Tadeusz Rydzyk CSsR. Radio Maryja strongly supported the victorious Law and Justice party and Lech Kaczyński during the parliamentary and presidential elections in Poland in 2005 [1], and has been a key pillar of support for the subsequently formed coalition government.[2] The station has been criticized by Polish and international media notably for perceived spreading of one-sided, polonocentric view of the world, misconceived patriotism, instrumental use of Catholicism as a political tool, promoting theories described as "conspiracy theories", and anti-Semitic propaganda. The name "Maryja" assumed by the Radio, is a traditional form of the name "Mary", referring to Mary, mother of Jesus by the Polish Roman Catholic community. Critics of Radio Maryja say RM sparked numerous scandals which potentially abused the authority of the Catholic Church in Poland.[3]

Programming schedule

Radio Maryja's programming consists of a political and religious news service (6 times daily), frequent recitals of the Rosary, breviary, Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the unction to The Black Madonna of Częstochowa, discussions on The Cathechism of the Catholic Church, daily transmission of the Holy Mass or of the Pope's pilgrimages, sociological and political programs e.g. "A Program for Farmers" or "Unfinished Conversations".

Ownership and finances

The radio station is owned by the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Warsaw Province), and is financed through donations from its audience ("The Radio Maryja Family"). Due to a concordat with the Vatican that grants certain privileges to the Church, Radio Maryja is not bound by any accountancy rules. Therefore Radio Maryja does not disclose the exact sources of its financing (nor of any of its enterprises), and does not pay taxes.[4] Radio Maryja is generously supported by Jan Kobylanski ([5], published by Radio Maryja), It was also sponsored by Edward Moskal, the notoriously anti-Semitic ^[1] chairman of the American Polish Congress^[1]. Radio Maryja is one of several Catholic media outlets in Poland.

Audience

Radio Maryja attracts a large audience whose size isn't exactly known, and consisting largely of elderly, rural listeners.[6] The station frequently claims that it has "millions of listeners", but market research usually shows lower numbers: approx. 1.2 million people daily. The audience peaked in 1998 and was estimated to be around 2 million listeners. The station estimates that it is listened to by well over 10% of adults in Poland[7], but the most comprehensive market research by Radio Track [8] for the whole of Poland (June-July 2005) shows a 2.5% "share of listening time". [9] A March 15, 2007 Economist article summarized that "The church in Poland is divided between Vatican loyalists, who often oppose close involvement in politics, and energetic dissidents linked to Radio Maryja, a hardline broadcaster. This once had huge clout, articulating the feelings of Poles alienated by the country's brisk, materialist business culture and the decay in moral norms. But Radio Maryja's audience has shrunk in the past decade to no more than 2% of all current listeners."

The Radio Maryja Family

Father Director has gathered a large group of committed followers, the Radio Maryja Family (Rodzina Radia Maryja), to which he is an unquestionable charismatic authority.[10] Many supporters of the Radio identify themselves with this movement which opponents call "the army of mohair berets", an offencing, pejorative or satirical expression. As of November 2006, The Radio Maryja Family network had 600 clubs and offices across Poland.[11] The movement holds a pilgrimage to Częstochowa every year. In 2006 a group of 200,000 members of the Radio Maryja Family visited Jasna Góra in Częstochowa. Representatives of the Radio Maryja Family also visited the Vatican and met Pope John Paul II in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000. These pilgrimages help to recruit members because in Poland the cult of Mary (mother of Jesus) is particularly strong. The Radio Maryja Family is a heavy supporter of the nationalistic-clerical party PiS and its leaders Kaczynski brothers.

Related enterprises

Enterprises related to Radio Maryja, independent of the Roman Catholic Church authorities, and initiated by His excellency Father Rydzyk are Telewizja Trwam ("I persist" TV network) [12], Nasz Dziennik ("Our Daily"), the Nasza Przyszłość ("Our Future") Foundation, the Lux Veritatis Foundation, and the Wyższa Szkoła Kultury Społecznej i Medialnej ("The College of Social and Media Culture") in Toruń. The rector of the School is Father Rydzyk. Radio Maryja's opponents say that this network of six enterprises is dominated by Father Rydzyk and call it the "Media Empire of Father Rydzyk", or the "Rydzyk holding company" ([13], article in Polish).

Controversies

Accusations of Intolerance

A recent survey on European "hate radio" prepared by Radio Netherlands cited Radio Maryja as controversial. One of Radio Maryja's programs, "Unfinished Conversations", is according to the magazine Polityka "dominated by intolerance and authoritarianism". Lech Wałęsa, the former president of Poland who is also a critic of the station[14], announced that "Radio (Maryja) is lying if it considers itself a Catholic station". [15] Nevertheless, Radio Maryja claims that it is the only independent, conservative and catholic radio station in Poland. It accuses other media, mainly Gazeta Wyborcza, of fiercely attacking the "only entirely Polish radio station".

Accusations of Antisemitism

Critics [16] say that the radio station crosses the line of xenophobia and propagates extreme antisemitism [17] and hate concepts such as żydokomuna. In one broadcast Radio Maryja listeners were told that the Jewish people fled from Poland with all the Jewish gold and that Jews have a negative effect on the birth rate of the Polish people. The Council for Media Ethics referred to the station's "weakly documented accusations" as "primitive anti-Semitism".[18] In January 2000 another controversy was caused by a statement of Ryszard Bender, an historian from the Catholic University of Lublin, during a discussion on Radio Maryja with convicted Holocaust denier [19] Dariusz Ratajczak that Auschwitz was nót an extermination camp but a merely very large labour camp for Jews [20][21]. . For instance, Stanisław Michalkiewicz in April, 2006, was reported in the Gazeta Wyborcza as stating that "men from Judea ... are trying to surprise us from behind", and referring to the World Jewish Congress as "a main firm in the Holocaust Industry". [22] Michalkiewicz responded by calling the Gazeta Wyborcza "an unusual example of the Jewish fifth column in Poland" and "a Jewish newspaper for Poles". In 2004 Radio Maryja went on a campaign in defense of Father Henryk Jankowski, a priest accused by certain journalists of antisemitism as well as once accused of pedophilia by the same, but found innocent. The antisemitism accusations against Radio Maryja has brought the station to worldwide attention.[23]

Supporters of the station claim that the occasional hate or anti-semitic statements transmitted by Radio Maryja are rare and originate mostly from its listeners and not workers.[24]
A report of the Council of Europe suggested that Radio Maryja has been "openly inciting to antisemitism for several years" and that there is "a lack of effective implementation of measures intended to prohibit antisemitic acts and statements" in Poland.[25]

Conflict with Vatican

The Vatican has voiced deep concern about Radio Maryja [26] [27]. The papal nuncio in Poland, Archbishop Józef Kowalczyk, wrote to the Polish Episcopate requesting their aid "to overcome difficulties caused by some transmissions and the views presented by Radio Maryja".[28] In response in May 2006 Polish bishops established an oversight body. Nevertheless the controversial Father Rydzyk remains the head of Radio Maryja and the radio seems to have ignored the warning from the Vatican ambassador.[29] Several Polish bishops had previously criticized Radio Maryja for spreading opinions incompatible with the Episcopate's stand.[30] According to the official Vatican web page: "Radio Maryja (...) became much more involved in spreading risky politics than in spreading the Gospel."[31]

However, some Polish bishops support the work of Father Rydzyk and are openly friendly to his radio station. Also Pope John Paul II initially supported and praised Radio Maryja for its prayers (but not for politics or any of the controversies which arose later). Critics note that the Radio Maryja case has divided the Polish Episcopate for a long time.[32][33][34]

Media speculated that the Roman Catholic Church in Poland might be heading for a schism [35]. Although a schism may be doubtful, the potential breakaway church led by Father Rydzyk was named "The Rydzyk Church of Poland"[36], an ironic expression, or the "Toruń-Catholic Church" (in Polish: kościół toruńsko-katolicki). In Poland the latter term is sometimes used to refer to the ideology of Radio Maryja in general.

Conspiracy theories

A recent affair with the WSI, presented on this radio station by Antoni Macierewicz, purports to show how society was steered by the secret services. The station has claimed that the freemasons rule the world and that the Jews will conquer the world (listen). It was once broadcast that the Jews rule the country and their government should be removed with violence and that Radio Maryja should take the power (listen). Jewish people working in the World Trade Center were accused of betrayal and conspiracy as they supposedly knew everything ahead of time.

Euroscepticism

Radio Maryja strongly opposed Poland's joining of the European Union which eventually happened in 2004. [37] The station also suggested that a close cooperation with Russia would better serve Poland's national interests than joining of NATO (which happened in 1999).[38] Until 2003 the Catholic Radio Maryja was also aired on shortwave from Russia.

Support for death penalty

Radio Maryja has promoted the political program of Law and Justice, a Polish conservative party, which together with the League of Polish Families seeks to introduce the capital punishment in Poland and throughout Europe.[39][40][41] The support of Radio Maryja for death penalty contrasts strongly with the mainstream teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.[42]

Involvement in politics

Direct involvement in political issues is against the Catholic Church's directives for priests.[43] Nevertheless, controversial politicians from radical political parties are often invited to promote their views on Radio Maryja, including Andrzej Lepper, Roman Giertych and Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

In February 2006 the Law and Justice party signed a key agreement with two other political parties. To the fury of the Polish press, only journalists from Radio Maryja's sister television network Trwam and its director Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, who actively supported Law and Justice during the election, were allowed in the room.

The president of the Polish National Broadcasting Council, Elzbieta Kruk, stated that she has no authority to act in regard to these complaints, as she has been forced to step down as a result of having been appointed by the Polish president Lech Kaczynski, rather than the council as a whole; critics, however, suggest that it is the result of the government's fear of alienating the station's dedicated audience, who make up an especially significant fraction of the constituency of the new conservative governing party, Law and Justice.[44]

In contrast, in March, 2006, Polish literary critic and television personality Kazimiera Szczuka satirized a young woman who frequently recites prayers on Radio Maryja, not knowing that the woman was confined to a wheelchair. Despite Szczuka's public apology, she was found guilty of "insulting a disabled person and mocking her religion" by the Polish National Broadcasting Council, and the station on which she had appeared was fined the equivalent of $125,000;[45] according to the Polish press, the highest fine the Council had ever levied. The sole dissenting member of the Council, Wojciech Z. Dziomdziora, stated that "It is probably right to say" that the political support of the radio station for the ruling party "is the real reason" for the serious punishment of Ms. Szczuka, compared to the free hand given the station's disparaging comments on other's religions.[46]

Father Rydzyk said that a meeting of 50 women journalists with Maria Kaczynska, the wife of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski, on the International Women's Day was a "cesspool" - "We will not call it anything else. We will never refer to a cesspool as a perfumery." On this meeting the Polish first lady signed a statement to protest a tightening of the country's already strict abortion laws.[47]

Governmental back up

The current Polish government supports Radio Maryja - in December 2006 the Prime Minister of Poland, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, joined the 15th anniversary celebrations of Radio Maryja and praised the station as a source of “comfort and hope”.[48][49] Mr. Kaczynski warned that "an attack on Radio Maryja is an attack against freedom" [50] (article in Polish by Radio Maryja). Jaroslaw Kaczynski is a regular guest of Radio Maryja.[51]

Radio Maryja often states that it is attacked by liberal politicians and by media who “are doing everything” to assult “the only alternative for Poland”.[52] (original web site, in Polish).

Trivia

The station used to continuously broadcast an RDS signal for traffic announcements making car radios in Poland notoriously switch to Radio Maryja (see Usenet post: [53], in Polish).
In 1996 an anonymous person phoned Radio Maryja and spoke vulgar language to the priest hosting a live program (article in Polish). As a result Radio Maryja uses a delay loop which allows filtering of callers' comments.
The station broadcasts on several FM frequencies in Poland, via satellite and the Internet. In the past it was also aired on shortwave from Russia.
While the conventional greeting in the Roman Catholic Church is: "Praised be Jesus Christ!", Radio Maryja and its listeners say: "May Jesus Christ and Mary ever Virgin be praised".
Formally the Radio Maryja Family is part of the Roman Catholic Church, and not a Christian denomination or a sect. [54]
The other Catholic radio station in Poland is Radio Józef [55] - Radio of Warsaw archidiocesy. Has different program and is there are no politics discussions.
A slogan frequently repeated on Radio Maryja is: "Radio Maryja - The Catholic Voice in Your Home".
A Google search for 'siedziba szatana' (Polish for 'Satan's seat') once resulted in the Radio Maryja homepage: screenshot 1, screenshot 2. This was due to a Google bomb.

References

^ ^a ^b Cas Mudde (2005). Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. p. 168. ISBN 0415355931. OCLC 55228719. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |chapterurl= and |coauthors= (help)