Nominees for 2024 announced by the Mariusz Walter Award Committee

The Mariusz Walter Award recognizes media professionals who, in 2024, distinguished themselves through creativity, courage, outstanding journalism, and a keen sense of intuition and social awareness.

The nominees for the Main Award for Media Personality of the Year are Karolina Lewicka from TOK FM radio, Jakub Sobieniowski, journalist for Fakty TVN, and Agnieszka Szydłowska, Director of Radiowa Trójka.

In the Media Event of the Year category, nominations went to Paweł Figurski and Patryk Słowik from Wirtualna Polska for their investigative series on Minister of Science Dariusz Wieczorek, Renata Kim for her series of articles on Collegium Humanum in Newsweek Polska, and Piotr Świerczek for his reports and materials in TVN24 uncovering the Smolensk lie.

In the New Voice in Media category, the nominees are Sylwia Czubkowska, co-creator of the Techstorie podcast on TOK FM; Krzysztof Jakubowski, Agnieszka Mazuś, and Krzysztof Wiejak from JawnyLublin.pl; and Maciej Okraszewski, creator of the Dział Zagraniczny podcast.

The Sports in Media category features nominations for Juliusz Ćwieluch from Polityka for his podcast Rowery, nie bajki, Daria Kabała-Malarz from Canal+ Sport, and independent sports commentator Mirosław Żukowski.

The Mariusz Walter Award was founded by the Bożena and Mariusz Walter Foundation in late 2023. 
It serves as a recognition for both experienced media professionals and newcomers to the field. The award aims to show the path Polish media should follow and the values they should champion, while also acknowledging individuals whose work deserves to be heard.

The nominations and the winners in each category were determined by the Committee, which included: Andrzej Andrysiak, Edwin Bendyk, Andrzej Bobiński, Kamil Dziubka, Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram, Jerzy Jurecki, Grzegorz Kalinowski, Michał Kołodziejczyk, Adam Małysz, Adam Pieczyński, Hanna Rydlewska, Joanna Solska, Agata Szczęśniak, Mariusz Szczygieł, Bożena Walter, Jacek Wasilewski, and Paulina Wilk.

Candidacies are submitted by the Committee members, and during the deliberations, the nominees are chosen; three in each category. The winners will be revealed at the official Gala, scheduled for Friday, March 21, 2025, at the POLIN Museum.

This year a new award - the Bożena and Mariusz Walter Special Award -will be presented for the first time. This is a personal distinction granted by the founder and initiator of the awards for a lifetime of journalistic work. The recipient of this award is not chosen by the Award Committee.

“I’ve often been asked how I would define a media personality. There are many factors that come into play, but if I had to put it in one sentence, I would say that a media personality is someone who evokes emotion and is backed by a consistently excellent skill set. That’s why this year, I decided to present a Special Award to a person who has always earned admiration from both Mariusz and me. Someone whose work we’ve frequently discussed at home and who has consistently proven the quality of their craft, yet has never been officially recognized until now”  - says Bożena Walter, founder of the Bożena and Mariusz Walter Foundation.

The winners in all categories will receive a statuette crafted by one of Poland’s most skilled sculptors, Tomasz Górnicki, along with a monetary award. The prize for the main category, Media Personality of the Year, is 100,000 PLN, while the awards in the other categories amount to 30,000 PLN each. The competition is organized by and the prizes are funded by the Bożena and Mariusz Walter Foundation.

The media patron of the award is TVN Warner Bros. Discovery.