Mateusz Kijowski

Mateusz Kijowski
Mateusz Kijowski
Born 1968
Warsaw
Nationality Polish
Known for Committee for the Defense of Democracy

Mateusz Kijowski (born Dec 12, 1968 in Warsaw, Poland) – an IT specialist,[1] journalist,[2] social activist, and blogger.[3]

Life and activism

Kijowski studied mathematics at the University of Warsaw. He transferred to Faculty of Family Sciences (Polish: Instytut Studiów nad Rodziną) at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw (former Warsaw Theological Academy). After one year he transferred yet again, this time, to study Journalism. He dropped out from university and started working at a clothing company, designing outdoor recreation gear. In 1991, he started working in the IT Department of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. At the end of 1993 he was hired by Computer Education Center (Polish: Centrum Edukacji Komputerowej), where he was training network administrators. In year 2000 he graduated from College of Management (Polish: Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania) at the Polish Open University with a degree in business information management. He wrote his thesis on stochastic volume oscillators.[1]

He started his activist efforts in a tourism organization at his parish.[4] He was active in the father’s rights movement,[5] he was one of organizers of the campaign “stopstopnop”[6] polemicizing with opponents[7] of mandatory vaccinations for newborn children. He was the co-founder of an organization, Stop Rape (Polish: Stop gwałtom).[8]

At the onset of the Polish constitutional crisis, 2015 he started a Facebook group Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji, also known as KOD),[9] within three days after November 20, 2015 there were over thirty thousand members.[10] On December 2, 2015 in Warsaw the first founding meeting of the Association Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD) took place. A new statute was approved and a temporary management group was formed with Kijowski in it. During the process of forming the Association, several threats toward Kijowski surfaced and the police started protecting him.[11]

On December 3, 2015 he organised a picket in support of the Constitutional Tribunal’s actions to ensure the rule of law in Poland. Subsequent protests took place on December 12th in Warsaw and on December 19th in more than 20 Polish cities and several European capitals.[12] On December 23, he presented the outline of a compromise “exit strategy” at a press conference in Warsaw.[13]

In December 2015 he was awarded the "Freedom Prize" by Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie[14] in recognition of his civic activity, in particular for the swift organization of peaceful protests in defence of democracy and civil rights in Poland.[15]

Mateusz Kijowski is son of Jerzy Kijowski, he has four children[16] and was married twice.


Controversies

Since the foundation of KOD Kijowski was being accused of having fallen behind with child support payments prior to starting the organization.[17] On January 4th, 2017 it was revealed that Kijowski had a potential conflict of interest, as while serving as the leader of KOD, between March and August 2016, his company "MTM" billed the organization monthly for IT services. Following this revelation the KOD Board initiated an external financial audit, with many KOD members demanding for Kijowski to step down.[18]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Kublik, Agnieszka, Mateusz Kijowski: Zakładajmy komitety (in Polish), Warsaw: Gazeta Wyborcza. Magazyn Świąteczny, ISSN 0860-908X, retrieved 2015-12-19
  2. ↑ Publicystyka Kijowskiego na portalu Studio Opinii (in Polish), studioopinii.pl, 2015-12-19, retrieved 2015-12-19
  3. ↑ Co się komu w duszy gra, co kto w swoich widzi snach… o świecie, o życiu i takich tam (in Polish), Mateusz24..., 2015-12-19, retrieved 2015-12-19
  4. ↑ Langer, Manuel (2015-12-15), Mateusz Kijowski – KOD będzie dla niego tylko wstępem do dużej politycznej kariery? (in Polish), naTemat.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  5. ↑ Mateusz (2012-10-15), O alimentach, ale na poważnie… | no co ty Tato (in Polish), nocotytato.org.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  6. ↑ stopSTOPNOP.pl (in Polish), stopstopnop.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  7. ↑ Oświadczenie dotyczące Mateusza Kijowskiego i fałszywej informacji podanej przez TVN (in Polish), stopnop.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  8. ↑ Stop Gwałtom (in Polish), Stop Gwałtom, archived from the original on 2015-12-17, retrieved 2015-12-23
  9. ↑ Powstał społeczny ruch: Komitet Obrony Demokracji (in Polish), Newsweek Polska, 2015-11-22, retrieved 2015-12-23
  10. ↑ Obywatel, nie polityk. Krótka historia twórcy KOD-u (in Polish), TVN24.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  11. ↑ Lider Komitetu Ochrony Demokracji prosi policję o ochronę. "Otrzymuję pogróżki" (in Polish), Dziennik.pl, 2015-12-08, retrieved 2015-12-23
  12. ↑ Manifestacje KOD w całym kraju (in Polish), TVN24.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  13. ↑ Duval Smith, Alex; Borger, Julian (2015-12-23), Poland: Lech Wałęsa warns against 'undemocratic' curbs on court, London: The Guardian, retrieved 2015-12-24
  14. ↑ Założyciele i Założycielki Towarzystwa Dziennikarskiego - Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie (in Polish), towarzystwodziennikarskie.org, retrieved 2015-12-23
  15. ↑ Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie ustanowiło Nagrodę Wolności. Mateusz Kijowski pierwszym laureatem (in Polish), www.wirtualnemedia.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  16. ↑ Mateusz Kijowski (in Polish), naTemat.pl, retrieved 2015-12-23
  17. ↑ Kublik, Agnieszka, Tabloid pisze o alimentach Kijowskiego. Lider Komitetu Obrony Demokracji odpowiada na zarzuty (in Polish), Gazeta Wyborcza, retrieved 2015-12-23
  18. ↑ Klauziński, Sebastian (2017-01-05), Mateusz Kijowski i faktury dla KOD. Co się nie zgadza w wyjaśnieniach członków zarządu KOD? (in Polish), Warsaw: Gazeta Wyborcza, retrieved 2017-01-07
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