KRAKOW — Two members of Poland’s National Broadcasting Council received death threats of an anti-Semitic nature last week following their decision not to renew the license of Trwam, an ultra-Catholic TV station.
According to the Polish Press Agency, council chairman Jan Dworak and senior board member Krzysztof Luft received handwritten letters sent from a Warsaw post office on Thursday. The messages warned, “If you continue to carry out the orders of the anti-Polish and anti-Catholic Jewish mafia of [Prime Minister Donald ]Tusk and [President Bronislaw] Komorowski by not granting TV Trwam a license, the Freedom and Independence Court will issue a death sentence against you.”
Neither Tusk nor Komorowski is Jewish.
The original Freedom and Independence Court was an underground anti-Communist organization founded after WWII.
Trwam, established in 2003, is an ultra-conservative Catholic channel headquartered in Torun, Poland. The channel is closely associated with Tadeusz Rydzyk, a controversial priest who owns the conservative radio station Radio Maryja, which has been accused on several occasions of broadcasting anti-Semitic content. Trwam has studios in Warsaw and Torun and is largely funded by donations.
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Dworak and Luft filed complaints with Warsaw police on Friday, and the local prosecutor has launched an investigation.
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