Senate pays tribute to Radio Free Europe

The station, a crucial source of information during the communist era in Poland, first broadcast from Munich on 3 May 1952 and a series of events is planned to the mark the 60th anniversary of the event.

The Senate resolution expresses gratitude to Radio Free Europe journalists and reporters, those based abroad and in Poland, recalling that cooperation with the Munich station was treated by the communist authorities as an involvement in American propaganda whose aim was a change of the political system in Poland.

The resolution stresses that Polish-language broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain were a source of hope for the Polish nation and laid the foundation for the regaining of freedom in 1989.

The first director of the Polish Section of Radio Free Europe was the legendary war-time ‘Courier from Warsaw’ Jan Nowak-Jeziorański. He held the post until 1976. He was succeeded by Zygmunt Michałowski, Zdzisław Najder, Marek Łatyński and Piotr Mroczyk.

The Polish Section terminated its activity in the middle of 1994, after which its archives were handed over to Polish State Archives. (mk)