Adam Michnik receives Goethe Medal for contribution to Europe
Credit: Maik SchuckThe editor-in-chief of one of Poland's largest newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza has been awarded the Goethe Medal for an "outstanding contribution' to dialogue between Eastern and Western Europe.
Polish journalist and former dissident Adam Michnik was one of three winners to be presented with the annual award at the weekend in Germany, which honours foreign figures who have "performed outstanding service for the German language and international cultural relations".
The other two winners of the medal, first awarded in 1955, were British writer David Cornwell and French director Ariane Mnouchkine.
This year's award comes as the presenting body, the Goethe-Institut, celebrates its 60th anniversary. As a result the award had a special European focus for 2011.
According to the event website Michnik was credited with playing "a key role in ensuring that Poles and Germans now once again have a positive common story to tell".
"He has used his voice to fight for freedom and reconciliation, even beyond Poland's borders, and has always 'thought and acted as a cultured Central European'."
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