A court has rejected an injunction request made by the wife of the late Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski to ban the publication of a biography alleging that he invented sources, who was a communist spy that had many lovers.

The District Court in Warsaw has rejected a motion by Alicja Kapuscinska, wife of the renowned Polish journalist and writer, the late Ryszard Kapuscinski, to ban the publication of a biography by Artur Domoslawski.   

Alicja Kapuscinska did not manage to convince the court that the book would ruin her husband’s good name. The court said that Mrs. Kapuscinska knew about Domoslawski’s idea to write a biography of her husband and even let him use the writer’s private archives. Besides, the court stressed that Kapuscinski was a public person and some of the facts quoted in the book had already been revealed after Kapuscinski’s death three years ago.  

Mrs. Kapuscinska has announced that she will appeal from the court’s ruling. Meanwhile, Artur Domoslawski, author of Kapuscinski Non Fiction, is happy that the book will be released. “People will be able to judge the book themselves and to argue about it,” says Domoslawski.  

Alicja Kapuscinska accuses Domoslawski of being inaccurate and of giving a false account of Kapuscinski’s work and life. In his book Domoslawski questions Kapuscinski’s methods of acquiring information, suggesting that some of the non-fiction world described by the famous journalist is actually fiction, created by Kapuscinski himself. Domoslawski also addresses Kapuscinski’s alleged cooperation with Soviet intelligence, based on information from the Institute of National Remembrance. Domoslawski, in turn, accuses Mrs. Kapuscinska of trying to censor the book, which shows the whole truth about the legendary journalist.  

Kapuscinski Non Fiction was to be published by Znak in Krakow but the publishing house pulled out of the contract at the request of Mrs. Kapuscinska. Domnoslawski managed to find a second publisher ion Warsaw, though, Swiat Ksiazki, which plans to publish the biography on 3 March.

Ryszard Kapuscinski was a renowned Polish journalist and writer. He was born in 1932 in Pinsk, in what’s now Belarus and died in 2007 in Warsaw. Kapuscinski travelled the world working for the Polish Press Agency (PAP) and his reports chronicled wars, coups and events in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Among Kapuscinski’s most well-known works are the award winning Soccer War, Imperium, and Shah of Shahs. (mg/pg)