Journalism in Open and Closed Societies

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

source: Michigan Today, Spring 1998 archive source: info-poland.buffalo.edu

Spring 1998 Michigan Today—A Polish Perspective

. . . Spring 1998

HIS NATION’S SUFFERING HAS HONED A JOURNALIST’S

INSIGHTS INTO STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM

Ryszard Kapuscinski grew up maneuvering under the occupation of both the Hitlerian and Stalinist variants of despotism, an experience that helped the Polish journalist win a reputation as the world’s most insightful, poetic and dogged chronicler of political upheaval. Born in Pinsk, Poland, a city now in Belarus, in 1932, the year when Hitler came to power and Stalin launched his most brutal purges, Kapuscinski (pronounced kapus-CHINTZ-kee) has spent 40 years of his life–including a decade living in Africa–covering struggles against dictatorships and colonial regimes. One reason for his unusually long exposure to discord was that the Polish Press Agency often lacked funds to extricate him from dangerous crises.

Uniwersytet on kapuscinski.info

Journalism in Open and Closed Societies