On 1 December 1826, the first issue of Gazeta Polska appeared. It was co-edited by Maurycy Mochnacki, whose remains were laid to rest in Poland only a few years ago. Nevertheless – it was precisely with this newspaper that the history of the House of Free Speech began…
On 1 December 1826, the first issue of an information and political daily, published in Warsaw between 1826-1907, appeared.
In the years 1827-1829, when the editorial team of Gazeta Polska was led by Ksawery Bronikowski, with Maurycy Mochnacki as a collaborator, the newspaper became the main forum of the Romantics in their dispute with the Classicists. It was in its pages that Mochnacki published his famous treatise Myśli o literaturze polskiej (1828).
History of Gazeta Polska
Gazeta Polska is a title that has truly been through a lot. Shortly after its creation, in late 1829, opponents of the paper drove it to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing a change in its political line.
After the defeat of the November Uprising in autumn 1831, the daily adopted the name Gazeta Codzienna. In 1859, the title was purchased by Leopold Stanisław Kronenberg, who in 1861 restored its original name, Gazeta Polska. It is worth recalling that the literary section was edited between 1859-1862 by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, brought from Żytomierz by Kronenberg. The newspaper collaborated with numerous publicists, writers and scholars. Among them, in the years 1860-1864, was the engineer and inventor Stanisław Janicki, and between 1873-1882 the writer Henryk Sienkiewicz.
The title was revived in 1993. The founder of the modern Gazeta Polska was, and still is, Editor-in-Chief Tomasz Sakiewicz.
In 2023, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of our media group, in the pages of Nowe Państwo, Tomasz Sakiewicz recalled the history of its creation while writing about the entire activity of the House of Free Speech.
“The Free Speech Zone is a media group consisting of several print and electronic outlets, among which the oldest is Gazeta Polska. In late February and early March 1993, its first issue appeared. At that time I co-created it together with Piotr Wierzbicki and Elżbieta Isakiewicz. The title itself already existed in the 19th century, and we referred to it more or less consciously. In the 1990s, my current deputies – Kasia Gójska and Piotr Lisiewicz – joined ‘GP’. At that time, the first attempts were also made to establish Gazeta Polska clubs. They existed only for a few years. We conducted an experiment by launching Gazeta Polska on the Internet, even before ‘Wyborcza’ created its portals. In 2005, I became editor-in-chief, and Kasia and Piotr became my deputies. One of my first decisions was to restore the Gazeta Polska clubs. They still exist today in the form created back then. We also began efforts to launch our own online portal. This is how Niezalezna.pl was created. We also took over the publication of the monthly Nowe Państwo. In 2011, we established the daily Gazeta Polska Codziennie, and in 2013, in a coalition with other circles, TV Republika. Earlier, we developed the online television Gazeta Polska VOD. Based on Niezalezna.pl, we also created the economic portal Filary Biznesu. At TV Republika, new editorial departments developed: English-language, economic, the TV portal and social media. Additionally, we launched the English-language portal Polanddaily24.com. We created two foundations – the Free Speech Foundation and the Gazeta Polska Clubs Foundation (Fundacja Klubów „GP”), the first to support media operations, the second to support the ‘GP’ clubs. The clubs’ foundation has its own website and communication system. To support internal club debates, we created a Polish equivalent of Facebook – Albicla – which we made available to everyone. In addition, many foundations and associations related to the clubs have emerged, and there are now 500 of them. They are separate entities, but they draw from our experience”.