Gazeta Wyborcza

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Image:Gazeta Wyborcza.jpg Gazeta Wyborcza (pronounce: [ga'zεta vi'bɔrʧa] , gazeta veeborcha) is, as of 2005, Poland's second largest distribution daily newspaper (after the tabloid Fakt). It is considered a relatively high brow newspaper and covers a full range of political, international and general news. As with almost all newspapers in Poland it is in tabloid format.

Gazeta Wyborcza began on May 8, 1989, with the masthead "Nie ma wolności bez Solidarności" ("There's no freedom without Solidarity"). Its founding was one of the outcomes of the Polish Round Table Agreement between the Communist government of the People's Republic of Poland and the opposition gathered around the Solidarity movement. The paper was to serve as the voice of Solidarity during the runup to semi-free elections to be held on June 4, 1989. As such, it was the first official newspaper published outside of the Communist regime's control since its establishment in the late 1940s. According to the editors, the first edition was small (150,000) and relatively expensive due to limited supplies of paper from the state. A year and a half later the daily run reached 500,000. In September, 1990, during the acrimonious breakup of the Solidarity camp following the collapse of the Communist regime, Lech Wałęsa revoked the paper's right to use the Solidarity logo on its masthead. Since then it has been a fully independent newspaper, which generally supports the liberal point of view.