Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist, photographer, poet and author. He received many awards and was considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kapuściński's personal journals in book form attracted both controversy and admiration for blurring the conventions of reportage with the allegory and magical realism of literature. He was the Communist-era Polish Press Agency's only correspondent in Africa during decolonization, and also worked in South America and Asia. Between 1956 and 1981 he reported on 27 revolutions and coups, until he was fired because of his support for the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in his native country. He was celebrated by other practitioners of the genre. The acclaimed Italian reportage-writer Tiziano Terzani, Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, and Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda accorded him the title "Maestro".

Polityka is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050, it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of Newsweek's Polish edition, Newsweek Polska, and Wprost. Polityka has a slightly intellectual, socially liberal profile, setting it apart from the more conservative Wprost and the glossier approach of Newsweek Poland. Prominent editors and permanent contributors have included Adam Krzemiński, Janina Paradowska, Daniel Passent, Ludwik Stomma, Adam Szostkiewicz, Jacek Żakowski, Ryszard Kapuściński, Jerzy Urban, and Krzysztof Zanussi.