Father Tadeusz Rydzyk: photo - wikipedia
A letter sent on Monday from a Warsaw post office was written in the name of post-WWII anti-communist resistance movement Freedom and Independence (WiN).
KRRiT chairman Jan Dworak and board-member Krzysztof Luft were singled out in the letter.
“If you carry out the orders of the anti-Polish, anti-Catholic masonic-Jewish mafia of Tusk and Komorowski [Prime Minister and President], and do not grant a license for TV Trwam, the Freedom and Independence court will issue a death sentence for those responsible for the decision,” the letter claimed, as cited by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
A deadline was specified for March this year, stressing that “we have the means to eliminate traitors.”
TV Trwam, which is part of the media empire of controversial priest Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, was denied a place last year on the digital television multiplex system which will replace analogue in Poland.
KRRiT justified its decision by stating that there were financial irregularities with the application. The Council stressed that Father Rydzyk's Lux Veritatis Foundation, which owns TV Trwam, was financially dependent on a loan.
However, supporters of TV Trwam claimed that the decision was political.
In May 2012, a Warsaw district court rejected the Lux Veritatis Foundation's complaint against the decision. An appeal is due to be heard in Poland's Supreme Administrative Court (NSA).
TV Trwam, together with Father Rydzyk's Radio Maryja, have proved controversial within the Catholic hierarchy itself, owing to the political nature of the media group, and incidences of anti-semitism.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow and former aide to Pope John Paul II had initially argued that it was “absolutely necessary to create a new governing board for Radio Maryja and TV Trwam, that will serve the Church in Poland under the guidance of bishops united with Holy Father Benedict XVI, the spiritual heir of Pope John Paul II.”
However, in June last year, the cardinal altered his rhetoric, saying that “we are concerned by the discrimination against Catholic media, particularly against the merited TV Trwam," as quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. (nh)