Ryszard Kapuscinski's secret-service past

Correspondent Ulrich M. Schmid was little impressed by Newsweek Polska's exposure of the recently deceased star reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski as an informant for the communist secret police. "'Newsweek' is following in the long-standing and futile tradition of Polish papers of confronting celebrities with their communist past. All the fuss is a storm in a teacup: the information that was passed on to the secret police was for the most part unimportant and harmed no one... In Kaupscinski's case there was also little of any interest. When he took up his post as Africa correspondent for the Polish state news agency the secret police assigned him the task of reporting on US activities on the Black continent. This type of double mandate was common in communist Poland: those who were allowed to travel widely had to declare their willingness to cooperate with the authorities."

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