Radio Maryja

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Radio Maryja in Toruń
Monument of John Paul II in front of the headquarters of Radio Maryja, by Gennadij Jerszow 2014

Radio Maryja is a national conservative Catholic embossed radio station in Poland with headquarters in Toruń .

History and dissemination

The station was founded on December 8, 1991 by the Polish Redemptorist father and media entrepreneur Tadeusz Rydzyk . The first broadcasts took place in the spring of 1992. The broadcaster answers with the words: “This is Radio Maryja, the Catholic voice in your house. Praise be to Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary ”. According to their own account, the program is produced by six priests, three nuns and around 200 lay helpers and financed by donations and sponsors. The program consists mainly of prayers such as the Rosary and hymns , which are supplemented by reports, comments and listener hours. In the roundtables, representatives from church, politics, business and culture are discussed.

Radio Maryja can be received via satellite in other European countries and the USA. There is a link to the live streaming on the official homepage , which makes it possible to listen to the station via the Internet.

Radio Maryja is not a member of the worldwide sponsoring association of the Radio Maria transmitter family , which currently consists of around 50 transmitters in 40 countries.

In 2005 the station's market share in Poland was 2.34 percent and fell to 1.78 percent by 2008. In 2011 the station's market share was 2.15 percent, which corresponds to around 830,000 daily listeners. Radio Maryja thus came in 5th place in the Polish radio landscape. The proportion of listeners between 60 and 75 years of age was 48.26 percent in 2011, followed by the group of 40 to 49 year olds with 36.04 percent. Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 make up only about 4.59 percent.

Criticism of Radio Maryja

Political influence

The broadcaster is accused of interfering in politics in a one-sided and partisan way. The Polish conservative-Catholic parties such as Law and Justice (PiS) and League of Polish Families (LPR) were supported in the election campaign. Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the "School of Social and Media Culture" ( Wyższa Szkoła Kultury Społecznej i Medialnej ) in Torun ( Thorn ), whose rector he is, as well as the television channel TV Trwam forwards and the newspaper Nasz Dziennik founded, is accused of taking sides .

The main criticism of the station is directed against the fact that program content was Eurosceptic , anti-Semitic and xenophobic in character. In total, the National Broadcasting Council received almost 40 complaints against Radio Maryja.

anti-Semitism

According to the Polish Media Ethics Council, the broadcaster had repeatedly claimed that the Jews would gain an economic advantage from the Holocaust . Marek Edelmann , who organized the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto , called on the Polish government to intervene against the station:

“Radio Maryja has existed in Poland for 16 years and spreads xenophobia, chauvinism and anti-Semitism in its political programs. I demand energetic action so that such propaganda has no place in free Poland, so that in free Poland all citizens are equal regardless of gender, belief or nationality and feel at home. "

In a tape recording of a lecture published in the news magazine Wprost , the station's founder Rydzyk Lech describes Kaczyński as a “fraudster who submits to the Jewish lobby”.

In May 2011, Radio Maryja was reprimanded by the State Broadcasting Council for two implicitly anti-Semitic contributions.

Misappropriation of donations

In 1997 and 1998 several million zlotys were collected in donations without the permission of the Ministry of Interior, which were intended for the rescue of the Gdansk Shipyard . Father Tadeusz Rydzyk speculated about the money on the stock exchange, as the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported. The opposition in parliament called for an investigation.

surreptitious advertising

After several warnings for surreptitious advertising , which Radio Maryja is prohibited as a non-profit station, the Polish Redemptorist Province as the holder of the broadcasting license was fined twice in March 2011 and July 2012. In December 2011, the station had advertised a bank and its own cellular network.

Relationship with the Vatican

After repeated reprimands, which, however, did not lead to decisive action by the Catholic Church in Poland , a letter from the Vatican to the Polish bishops stated: “The Holy See urgently requests the Polish bishops to cope with the difficulties caused by some radio broadcasts and activities overcome". The country's Catholic Church must take action against the station, demanded the papal nuncio .

After the intervention of the Vatican and the request for “decisive action”, the broadcaster was to get a Catholic program advisory board, which, according to the Polish bishops, was supposed to “control and prevent political propaganda”. The program advisory board, made up of half by the episcopate and half by the Redemptorist Order, has meanwhile been set up.

The Archbishop of Kraków , Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz , demanded at a meeting of the Polish Bishops' Conference on August 25, 2007 that the boards of the Rydzyk-controlled Radio Maryja and the TV station Trwam be replaced. Rydzyk threatened the unity of the Polish Church.

In December 2011, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone congratulated on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. the broadcaster for “20 years of self-sacrificing evangelization mission” and declared that Radio Maryja strengthens the Catholic faith and enables the encounter with God.

References

Web links

Commons : Radio Maryja  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ World family of Radio Maria (Radiomaria.org): station overview ( Memento from December 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Rzeczpospolita, Radio Maryja znów rośnie w siłę , July 11, 2011
  3. ↑ http://eu.thenews.pl/3/25/Artykul/118498,%E2%80%9ERadio-Maryja%E2%80%9C-einnahmreicher-als-der-Ministerpr%C3%A4sident-
  4. ↑ - ( Memento from January 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Demonstration against EU reform treaty called off. In: derStandard.at. April 10, 2008, accessed December 8, 2017 .
  6. ^ A b Österreichischer Rundfunk: ORF: Polish Media Ethics Council sharply criticizes “Radio Maryja” ; News from April 3, 2006.
  7. ↑ a b netzeitung.de: Vatican worried about Poland's Radio Maryja ( memento of March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); News from April 6, 2006.
  8. ↑ netzeitung.de: Polish father scolds Kaczynski fraudsters ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); News from July 9, 2007.
  9. ^ Poland: Accusations of anti-Semitism to Radio Maryja , Die Presse , May 10, 2011
  10. ^ Carsten Lißmann: Power struggle with the Bible radio operators ; in: Die Zeit, issue of April 16, 2006.
  11. ↑ https://www.kath.net/news/28632
  12. ↑ netzeitung.de: Bishops should monitor Radio Maryja ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); News from May 4, 2006.
  13. ↑ Gerhard Gnauck: Pater Rydzyk, Radio Maryja and anti-Semitism , Die Welt , January 12, 2010
  14. ^ Catholic news agency : Pope thanks Polish 'Radio Maryja' for evangelization work , kath.net , December 4, 2011