2009-10-13 19:16

Plaque honouring Ryszard Kapuscinski unveiled at PAP

A plaque honouring the late reporter and writer Ryszard Kapuscinski was unveiled at the PAP seat in Warsaw on Monday. Present at the ceremony were Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski and Kapuscinski's wife Alicja.

Engraved on the plaque is Kapuscinski's comment on press agency work: "Press agency journalism is pure slavery. No press or TV reporter knows the ordeals of writing for an agency".

Kapuscinski's widow said Kapuscinski's beginnings at PAP laid the ground for his later writing success.

Kapuscinski, dubbed "the best writer among Polish reporters", travelled as a PAP journalist throughout the world and reported on several dozen wars, coups and revolutions in America, Asia, and Africa. Kapuscinski worked for PAP in the years 1958-1972. Later he often cooperated with the agency as a freelance reporter.

Kapuscinski's best-known book, "The Emperor", is a reportage-novel on the decline of Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia. "Shah of Shahs" about the last Shah of Iran and "Imperium" about the last days of the Soviet Union have claimed similar success. All Kapuscinski's books have been translated into many languages.

Kapuscinski died in January 2007. AT/MB

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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