POLAND: The leader of Poland's ruling conservatives Jaroslaw Kaczynski has defended the controversial religious station Radio Maryja, calling its critics "enemies of freedom".
His remarks come as Polish bishops meet today to discuss a Vatican request to curb the political involvement of the station, run by maverick Redemptorist priest Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk.
Radio Maryja has an audience of around one million listeners, mostly from rural Poland, who tune in for its mix of prayers and politics. It is a staunch supporter of Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party (PiS), but critics say the station is anti-Semitic, xenophobic and homophobic and should be closed down.
"The same people who invoke the rule of independent media, the people who insult continuously the head of state, at the same time are leading a furious campaign against Radio Maryja and Fr Rydzyk," said Mr Kaczynski at a weekend press conference.
"Saying this medium doesn't have a right to exist in a democratic country can only come from people who are enemies of freedom and, as a consequence, enemies of democracy because without freedom, democracy cannot exist."
Mr Kaczynski said Fr Rydzyk and the station were part of a "front to change Poland", a move seen by observers as a veiled warning to Polish bishops.
"I have a feeling that Jaroslaw Kaczynski chose this moment, not to lobby the bishops, but to forestall them," said Mr Tomasz Terlikowski, a commentator on religious affairs. "To show Catholics that the bishops who criticise Fr Rydzyk are also a part of 'the system'."
Since winning last September's general election, the ruling PiS party has cracked down on the corruption and cronyism of the post-communist establishment, the "system" it blames for Poland's ills. The government has launched investigations into crooked privatisation deals and ex-communist politicians.
Also considered part of "the system" and on the government's investigation list are Poland's independent central bank, the mainstream media and the judicial system.
Opposition politicians have criticised the move as a politically motivated dragnet and suggest that "the system" is an umbrella group for everyone who doesn't support the politics of prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski or his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski.
Polish bishops are expected to release a statement today in response to two Vatican letters this year expressing "deep concern" about Radio Maryja's "political commitments".
But Jozefa Henelowa, deputy editor of the Catholic intellectual newspaper Tygodnik Powszechny, said Mr Kaczynski's statement would create "additional confusion that may have further consequences".
Radio Maryja has had a difficult few weeks: last month an elderly wartime resistance leader said the station was as xenophobic and anti-Semitic as the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.
Then a newspaper revealed that the station had invested 15 million zlotys (€3.9 million) in a construction company that later went bankrupt, money listeners had donated to save the Gdansk shipyard.
