Holland Discusses Minneapolis Tragedy and Media Integrity: “Democracy at Risk When Media Corrupted”

In a candid reflection on the fragility of truth in media, acclaimed filmmaker Agnieszka Holland has drawn sobering parallels between historical propaganda and contemporary news coverage. The Oscar-nominated director, recently honored with Göteborg’s prestigious Honorary Dragon Award, offered insights that highlight her ongoing concern with journalistic integrity in an increasingly polarized information landscape.

“Truth is still important in today’s world. But it’s easy to twist,” Holland remarked, referencing how propaganda functioned during the Stalin and Goebbels regimes. “It showed how easy it is to change the meaning of the words and how fragile they are. Sometimes it feels they’re becoming less and less important, like when we are listening to what American propaganda is saying about the victims of the shooting in Minneapolis.”

Holland’s observations come at a time when media credibility faces unprecedented challenges worldwide, with accusations of bias and misinformation becoming increasingly common across the political spectrum. Her comments reflect a growing concern among cultural figures about the erosion of shared truth in public discourse.

Her 2019 film “Mr. Jones” serves as a powerful historical lens through which to view these contemporary concerns. The film chronicles the true story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who risked his life to report on the Holodomor—the catastrophic man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine that killed millions between 1932 and 1933. Despite the scale of this tragedy, Jones’ reporting was largely dismissed or ignored by Western media at the time.

“He tried to tell the truth about what was going on, but no one was interested,” Holland explained. “When the media are corrupted and play with the truth regarding political and ideological agendas, democracy dies. We are in that moment right now.”

The Holodomor, now recognized as a genocide by numerous countries including the United States and Canada, was systematically covered up by Soviet authorities. Many Western journalists stationed in Moscow at the time, most notably Walter Duranty of The New York Times, actively denied the famine’s existence or minimized its severity, often to maintain their access to Soviet sources.

Holland’s film has gained renewed relevance in light of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the information warfare that has accompanied the conflict. The director’s work stands as a reminder of how historical narratives can be manipulated, suppressed, or forgotten when inconvenient to powerful interests.

Throughout her distinguished career spanning over four decades, Holland has consistently tackled difficult historical subjects with unflinching honesty. Born in Poland in 1948, she emerged from the Polish Film School tradition and has directed acclaimed works including “Europa Europa” (1990), “In Darkness” (2011), and the HBO miniseries “Burning Bush” (2013)—all of which deal with historical traumas and moral complexities.

The filmmaker’s concern about truth in media echoes growing global anxiety about the role of journalism in democratic societies. With public trust in news organizations declining across much of the developed world and social media platforms enabling the rapid spread of misinformation, Holland’s warning carries particular weight.

Media scholars note that the erosion of traditional business models for journalism has coincided with increasing polarization, creating an environment where truth often becomes secondary to engagement metrics and partisan narratives. The economic pressure on news organizations has led to reduced investigative resources precisely when they are most needed to untangle complex global events.

As audiences fracture into information bubbles reinforced by algorithmic recommendation systems, Holland’s perspective serves as a timely reminder of journalism’s essential democratic function—and the consequences when that function fails. Her comparison between historical propaganda systems and contemporary media environments offers a sobering assessment from an artist who has spent decades exploring the intersection of truth, power, and human dignity through film.