About me

My name is Igor Janke, and I am a journalist. Where I am today is the accumulation of many experiences that I have collected throughout my life. That is what my social and professional life has been like:

1972

As a five-year-old, I was catching sunshine and good energy.

1981-85

I went to high school in Gostyn, the heart of Wielkopolska, and immediately started to rebel. I wore my hair long, went to festivals in Jarocin and was a hippie.

1986-91

Wonderful studies in the most unusual place in Warsaw at the time – Theatre Knowledge at the State Higher School of Theatre. A colourful five years.

1988

My friends and I founded a branch of the NZS at the PWST (State Higher School of Theatre), and I became its chairman. We caught the end of the overthrow of communism.

1990-1991

Journalistic beginnings in free Poland. First texts published in the weekly ‘Po prostu’.

1991- 1995

My first permanent job. I was a reporter and then head of the culture department at ‘Życie Warszawy.’

1995-1996

My first short break as a journalist. I supervised the promotion of the ‘Świat Książki’ publishing house and organised, for example, the Writers’ Warsaw Festival.

1996-1997

I headed the journalism section of the monthly ‘Architektura-Murator’ and wrote for the journal ‘Życie’.

1997-1998

I was deputy editor of the ‘Express Wieczorny’ for a fairly short time.

1998-2003

My great adventure in management. I was editor-in-chief of the Polish Press Agency for five years.

2003-2006

I was in charge of the political section of ‘Rzeczpospolita’.

2006

In that memorable year, I founded Salon24.pl, Poland’s first socio-political blog platform. It was wild.

2008

In 2006, the Rzeczpospolita published an article titled ‘The unbearable speed of a blog’. Two years later, this text was included in the Polish Matura exam as a subject of analysis. I was a bit surprised by this :)

2009

My first book has been published – ‘POPiSowa kronika upadku”. A collection of texts from different years about politics.

2003-2013

The time of my intensive work as a journalist. I hosted programmes on TVP, TV Puls, Polsat News 2 and Radio TOK FM. I commented, wrote analyses and reports and published interviews.

2010

Less than a month before the Smolensk catastrophe, I received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta from President Lech Kaczyński for my activities in the NZS.

2011

The Polish premiere of my book ‘Forward!: The Story of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’. The book made some noise and was translated into Hungarian, German, English and Slovenian. In the same year, I also interviewed US President Barack Obama for Salon24. And this also caused a bit of a stir.

2012

I founded Freedom Institute, an independent think tank.

2014

While eating dumplings with an American professor, I had an idea of the Freedom Institute’s Leadership School. The best thing I have ever come up with.

2014

My book 'Fortress. Solidarity. Fighting. Underground Army'. has been published. The book won the Historical Book of the Year award. Translations have been published in Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

2013 – 2021

W tych latach miałem przerwę w dziennikarstwie i doradzałem biznesowi. Pracowałem dla kilkudziesięciu firm z Polski i świata. W tym czasie prowadziłem też jako wolontariusz Instytut Wolności i Szkołę Przywództwa. Zebrałem wiele ciekawych doświadczeń.

2021

Moving away from business, back to journalism. Launching the Open system podcast. I’m not leaving the Freedom Institute and the Leadership School.