Polish president marks 35th anniversary of Solidarity weekly

In an address on Monday, Duda recalled that the weekly was the first periodical that was published independently of Poland’s former communist authorities.

He said that it had the courage to speak out for justice, dignity and respect of all working people, struggling for a democratic Poland.

Duda said that among those contributing to the Solidarity weekly were people from both sides of today’s political divide, adding that two editors-in-chief of the weekly from the 1980s, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Jarosław Kaczyński, went on to become prime ministers.

Duda also praised Solidarity weekly journalists for their resolve to speak the truth, and to remain silent whenever it was not possible to speak the truth under the communist regime.

The launch of the weekly in April 1981, a few months after the official registration of the independent Solidarity trade union, is seen by historians as a significant event in Poland’s modern history.

With a print-run of half a million copies and a nationwide distribution, the Solidarity Weekly underscored the importance of Solidarity in Poland.

After the introduction of martial law in December 1981, most of the weekly’s journalists were interned by the communist regime.

Following the collapse of communism in 1989, several of the weekly’s leading journalists were appointed to Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s new Cabinet.

Past editors of the weekly include Jerzy Kłosiński, currently a member of the Board of Polish Radio, who held the post between 1991 and 2004. (mk/pk)