The visit of a group of Ukrainian media experts continues in Warsaw. The main topic of discussion is “Independent media and their influence on the development of democracy in the transition period”.
Most politicians believe that if they speak in the media, people will believe them. This is how Janusz Zaorski, ex-director, ex-chairman of the Polish Radio and Television Committee, former chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, characterized the need to create new media in 1989.
In the course of the discussion, the topic of pluralism of opinions in the media was continued by the well-known Polish journalist, ex-spokeswoman of the government, Malgozata Niezabitowska. Using numerous examples of work with the first persons of the state, the former spokeswoman told how at that time the Polish mass media showed reforms and changes in society and what difficulties had to be overcome.
According to Marek Jurek opinion, an oppositionist from the time of the Polish People’s Republic, the Marshal of the Sejm (2005-2007), public opinion is even more important than state structures. Because the aspirations of democracy become a cure for all anxieties. But democracy is impossible without free media.
The Ukrainian participants of the study visit talked about the role of mass media in the elections with the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik. “Our work is the work of Sisyphus,” the editor-in-chief of an influential publication metaphorically compared the doomed, sometimes fruitless, activity of newspaper employees. “And even if we understand that the stone will fall into the abyss, democracy is worth it…”. His deputy Mykolai Khrzhan is also the coordinator of mass media assistance in Ukraine. An important direct part of the work of the Press Club Polska, which organized the visit with the Juliusz Mieroszewski Center for Dialogue, is the media education of young and adults as the basis of an informed society, resistant to misinformation. Yaroslav Wlodarczyk and Magdalena Rigamonti, the initiators and organizers of the educational course for schoolchildren, as well as a series of thematic sessions for adults shared own achievements in this area . “Freedom of speech is not the most important right of the people, – the author of the educational program, Yaroslav Wlodarczyk, noted the relevance of systemic media education. – But free media and freedom of speech have in common: they talk what is going on with other rights in the society. Media education – inoculation against threats to the democratic development of society “.