Gimme some truth
It's been 50 years since Munich-based Radio Free Europe (RFE) first transmitted its programs across the continent.
Initially financed by the U.S.' Central Intelligence Agency, it gave many people in Eastern Europe's communist-run countries their first taste of a reliable news service after years of local government propaganda.
A concert by Jacek Kaczmarski
Last week, Poland celebrated the station's half century with a concert by Jacek Kaczmarski, renowned for his anti-communist songs under the Soviet-backed regime. The commemoration was held at Radio Cafe, which still belongs to the Association of RFE Employees.
Although RFE's Polish division closed down in 1994, its presence helped define the countrys history during the bleak years after World War II.
"People listened to us because they needed us and we were useful," said Zdzislaw Najder, head of RFE in Poland in the 1980s. For 53-year-old accountant Izabela Konstanty, RWE was the main source of reliable information. "It was a window on the world the only truth amid communist propaganda," Konstanty said.
In the 1980s, Poland's RFE was on the air for 19 hours a day a third of the programs were news and current affairs, while the rest included sports and cultural features. In those days, RFE employed many political emigres including journalist and U.S. national security adviser Jan Nowak-Jezioranski and the writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski.
The radio's audience numbers peaked during Poland's most turbulent times such as the 1956 Poznan riots, the December 1970 riots and martial law in the early 1980s. "At those times, people listened mostly to RFE because they wanted to learn what was happening in Poland," Najder said.
The communists jammed radio signals to prevent Poles from listening to RFE and prosecuted people caught tuning in. "You listened to RFE with windows and doors closed because (the communist secret police) walked by and kept an eye out for people listening to the radio," Konstanty said.
Najder agreed that the consequences were severe. "Many people were interrogated and arrested because they listened to RFE," he said. Najder was even sentenced to death in absentia by the communist authorities in 1983. Although he was officially accused of spying, his real crime was being the director of Poland's RFE section.
