Our production "Thick Air and Black Future: Poland and the Coal" by Marita Stocker received a nomination for the German-Polish Tadeusz-Mazowiecki-Journalist Award!

We are looking forward to the award ceremony on 31 May in Górzykowo and are curious to see what will happen with the nomination. The German-Polish journalist award awards prizes to the best contributions that have reported fairly and openly on the respective neighbouring country and that were printed, broadcast or published on the internet for the first time in print media, radio or television in the previous year. The prize money for each category is 5,000 euros. An independent jury selects the best among the submitted contributions. The publications submitted should make a concrete contribution to increasing the knowledge of Germans and Poles about each other, to improving mutual understanding in politics, business, science, culture and society, to bringing everyday life on both sides closer to the respective neighbour and to promoting living together in the European Union.

Krakow is known for its rich history and beautiful Old town. Krakow is also regarded as the smog capital of Poland: The permitted air pollution is exceeded 27 times on some days. The reason: As in the whole country, many old buildings are still heated with coal, and Poland's electricity requirements are 95% from coal-fired power plants. But similar to the situation in the country, thousands of jobs still depend on the Polish coal deposits. The report tells how people in everyday life deal with the country's most important energy resource, how to try to combat coal smog and, at the same time, look for ways to make coal a more environmentally friendly energy source of the future. We consider environmental pollution and nature conservation to be important issues that we will continue to deal with more often in the future, both privately and in our productions. We appreciate the recognition of this nomination. But, apart from prices and nominations, it is important for us to draw attention to the issue of air pollution.

The contribution can be seen in the MDR Media Library. All news about the nomination and award ceremony will of course also be published here at News Section on our homepage and/or via our Facebook Channel.