Two members of Poland’s National Broadcasting Council have received antisemitic death threats following their decision not to renew the license of ultra-Catholic TV station Trwam.

All television stations in Poland have had to re-apply for their operating licences as part of a national switch to digital broadcasting.

According to the Polish Press Agency, Jan Dworak, the chairman of the council, and Krzysztof Luft, a senior board member, received a handwritten letter saying: “If you continue to carry out the orders of the anti-Polish and anti-Catholic Jewish mafia of Tusk [the prime minister] and Komorowski [the president]… the Freedom and Independence Court will issue a death sentence against you. I will sacrifice myself and shoot all of you. Who do you think you are, minions of the Satan?”

Trwam started operating in May 2003 and is owned by the Lux Veritatis foundation. The head of Lux Veritatis is Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, a controversial Roman Catholic priest who owns the conservative radio station Radio Maryja, which has been accused of broadcasting antisemitic content on several occasions. Trwam is largely funded by donations from radical Catholics.