Mayor Zoran Janković has welcomed to City Hall Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief of Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.

Adam Michnik came to Ljubljana at the invitation of Ljubljana University, as at a gala meeting of the University Senate on 4 December 2012 he was presented with an honorary doctorate of Ljubljana University. On this occasion he gave a lecture at the Faculty of Arts entitled ‘What is wrong with our democracy?’

Adam Michnik (1946), editor-in-chief of the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, is a legend from the turbulent times of the Polish road to democracy and the dismantling of the communist regime in eastern Europe, a former dissident who remains true to democratic principles in dealing with the past.

As a political essayist, journalist and historian, Adam Michnik still responds critically to current questions of societal life and consistently maintains the uncompromising stance of a contemporary intellectual. London’s Financial Times ranked him on its list of 20 most influential journalists in the world.

“We are condemned to incompleteness. Therefore, democracy is not black and white. Democracy is grey, born painfully, its value and taste and strength are best recognised when it sinks under the pressure of the extremes of red, white or brown ideas”. (Adam Michnik)