Adam Michnik

Adam Michnik is a Polish historian, essayist, former dissident, public intellectual, and the founder and editor-in-chief of the Polish newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza. He served as an advisor to Lech Walesa and played a significant role in the democratic opposition movement in Poland prior to 1989. He was imprisoned several times for his activism. Michnik was a key member of the Workers’ Defence Committee and Solidarity Union and worked as an editor for several independent magazines. He has written several books on political and historical issues. Michnik is a graduate of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He has received several prominent awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Erasmus Prize, and was the first non-Spanish winner of The Francisco Cerecedo Journalist Prize. He is a member of the Association of Polish Writers, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal, and the Reporters Without Borders Emeritus Board.