The meeting will focus on the mechanisms employed by contemporary authoritarian regimes to subordinate not only the media, public debate and historical memory, but also the very concept of truth and the legal system itself. It will explore the relationship between post-truth, propaganda and law in authoritarian systems, with particular emphasis on present-day Belarus. Post-truth will be presented not merely as a media or communication phenomenon but as a method of exercising power.
Our guest of honour will deliver an approximately 30-minute lecture entitled “Historia jako zagrożenie. Postprawda i prawo w służbie reżimów autorytarnych” [History as a Threat: Post-Truth and Law in the Service of Authoritarian Regimes], followed by a question-and-answer session and a discussion with attendees.
Andrzej Poczobut will explain, among other things, how, in an authoritarian state, facts can be replaced by politically useful narratives and how the law, instead of protecting citizens, can become a tool of repression against those who challenge such narratives. The lecture will draw both on his many years of journalistic experience and on his personal experiences of trial, imprisonment and political persecution.
We warmly encourage you to attend.
Prepared and edited by: Press Office, University of Lodz
Photo: archive
