Poland's Gazeta marks anniversary of end of communism with multimedia push

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Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has launched a series of multimedia features to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's first free elections, which brought an end to communist rule in Poland.

The paper has created a new social network focusing on personal and general history from the last 20 years, editor Grzegorz Piechota told Journalism.co.uk.

The network, Gazetopedia.pl , also features an archive of all 6,000 front pages of Gazeta. As part of this users can redesign a front page of the paper to feature their own photos and headlines.

There is also interactive timeline of more than 2,000 Polish and world news events from the last 20 years, to which readers can add their own memorable dates.

Readers have also contributed content to the website as part of crowd-sourcing projects run by the title, explained Piechota, who said there have been hundreds of submissions.

Images and articles from two of the projects, 'What have I done with my freedom in the last 20 years' and 'Me in 1989 and me today', will be published online.

Another project, 'Postcard from Poland', created in conjunction with Gazeta's school of photography initiative , asked readers to take a picture of Poland at 12pm today to create a countrywide snapshot. These images will be displayed in museums around the country , he said.

The anniversary is closely linked to the paper's own history: the title was founded in May 1989 by a group of journalists and activists, who supported the democratic opposition in the country during communist rule, and was used as a platform for candidates in the first democratic elections.

Online developments at Gazeta have also been backed up by features in the print edition and a series of events and product launches.

Today Gazeta published a special features supplement and carried an essay from editor-in-chief Adam Michnik, who was a dissident during the communist era and involved in talks between communists and opposition parties that led to the creation of Gazeta.

A collection of Michnik's books have also been republished and a photography book, '20 years with Gazeta', released.

The paper also organised an event in Warsaw last Saturday, combining a public march and exhibition – photos of which have been published online .

According to Piechota, many of the country's newspapers, including Gazeta, have adapted their mastheads for the day to represent the logo of the Solidarity movement.

The group action has been organised by Razem 89 [Together 89], a coalition of non-governmental organsiations, which has encourage hundreds of Polish organisations to get involved in the anniversary celebrations,  he said.