The annual awards, which were revived in 2019 after a hiatus of more than a decade, were presented for the fourth time in three main categories, Music, Image, and Printed Word.
Skrzek, a pioneer of Polish progressive and electronic rock, was announced the winner in the Music category at a ceremony in Warsaw on Monday night.
Józef Skrzek. Image: Polish Radio
Meanwhile, journalist and documentary filmmaker Elżbieta Jaworowicz picked up the prize for best Image, and writer Joanna Siedlecka won in the Printed Word category.
Each of the three winners earned a statuette and a cash prize of PLN 100,000 (EUR 21,335, USD 24,170).
Polish Radio sponsored the award in the Music category.
Meanwhile, public television broadcaster TVP took care of selecting the winner in the Image category, and the state news agency PAP was in charge of the Printed Word award.
This year, a fourth category, Idea, was added, in which the award winner was selected by the heads of 17 regional broadcasters overseen by Polish Radio. That award went to current-affairs commentator Piotr Semka.
This year's nominees in the Music category included singer and musicologist Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and jazz musician Leszek Możdżer.
Polish Radio CEO Agnieszka Kamińska has described the nominees as "remarkable artists who contribute to national culture in the most valuable way by creating original, ambitious and extraordinary music that transgresses stylistic boundaries."
The originator of Poland’s Public Media Awards, Krzysztof Czabański, who heads a watchdog body known as the National Media Council, has said the annual awards are “a form of state patronage of the arts.”
Krzysztof Czabański, head of Poland's National Media Council and the originator of the annual Public Media Awards. Photo: PAP/Wojciech Olkuśnik
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Source: IAR, PAP, TVP
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Elżbieta Krajewska.