Chapter 6
In: Politics and the Media in Poland from the 19th to the 21st Centuries
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Abstract
Scientific objective: The director of Radio Free Europe’s Polish Broadcasting Station, Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, attached great importance to religious broadcasts: behind the Iron Curtain, other than preaching from the pulpit, the Church of Silence had no mass media at its disposal. The radio station was the only source of information on Episcopal and Holy See speeches. The research purpose of this article is to analyse the previously unresearched issue of cyclical broadcasts of programmes edited by Rev. Tadeusz Kirschke in 1952–1975 (including Kościół walczący / Church Militant and Wiara i życie / Faith and Life) available on the portal of RFE and in the monthly Na Antenie / On Air. In addition to identifying the subject matter, the research questions included determining the unofficial group of journalists who covered religious issues and the radio genres they most often employed.
Research methods: Media and press content analysis, qualitative content analysis, and the method of literature analysis and criticism were applied as part of the research methodology.
Cognitive value: The results show that the topics discussed in broadcasts were dominated by issues of Church life in Poland, the countries of the Soviet Bloc and around the world. These mostly involved the relationship between the Church and state, the strategy behind the Communists’ struggle against religion, and the lies and propaganda against the Church hierarchs. Naturally, strictly spiritual issues were also presented. Undoubtedly, RFE contributed to the international dissemination of these issues as well as other Polish matters.