Tatiana Kolesnychenko, Anna Dudzińska, Wojciech Grzędziński, and Michał Przedlacki were awarded the 7th Ryszard Kapuściński Polish Press Agency (PAP) Prize in the categories of text, audio, photo, and video, respectively. Dariusz Rosiak received a special award “for explaining the world.”
24 November 2025 | Wirtualnemedia
The winner in the audio category was Anna Dudzińska. The jury recognized her for her six-part audio series “Sami. The Remorse of Scandinavia,” which appeared in “Pismo” magazine (produced by the Pismo Foundation).
Dudzińska explores the north of the Old Continent, focusing on Europe’s indigenous inhabitants, the Sami, derogatorily called Lapps. It’s a story about people constantly fighting for their rights in countries considered paragons of tolerance, openness, and democratic values. Her guide through this world is, among others, Katarzyna, a Polish woman who has lived and worked in Tromsø for 20 years as a teacher, teaching the Sami people of Norway their native language and “recovering” forgotten Sami names for hills, mounds, rocks, streams, and lakes. There are also figures associated with the North: lawyer Ande Somby (defender of the Sami), professor of Sami literature Lil Tove Fredricson, professor Ivar Bjorklund from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Ilona Wiśniewska – a Polish reporter living in Tromsø, Swedish writer of Polish origin Maciej Zaremba Bielawski, author of the book “Panowie nas tu przesiedlili” Elin Anna Labba, as well as many Sami people asking important questions about language, identity and heritage.
The jury awarded a distinction in the audio category to Martyna Wojtkowska (“The Day Begins in New Zealand”, Polish Radio Three, produced by the Polish Radio Reportage Studio in cooperation with the Pilecki Institute) and Michał Janczura (“Charlatan”, Wirtualna Polska).
Award for photographer Wojciech Grzędziński
The winner of the PAP Award in the photography category was Wojciech Grzędziński. The photographer was recognized for his reportage “Eliminations,” which documents the qualifying process for the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition . Grzędziński has been working at the Chopin Competition since 2005.
The qualifying rounds for this year’s Chopin Competition, attended by 171 artists from 28 countries, took place at the National Philharmonic this spring. In black-and-white photographs, Grzędziński captured the intense emotions, stress, and physical exhaustion experienced by the young pianists as they competed for participation in one of the world’s most important piano competitions, a victory that opens the door to international fame and a musical career. The photographer also captured the atmosphere backstage, capturing the concentration before the performance, the warm-up, and moments of tenderness spent with loved ones just before taking the stage.
Grzędziński also received a distinction for the second photo essay submitted – “Record of the Bombing of Konstantynówka.” This image captures the Ukrainian city moments after its destruction by Russia. The second honorable mention in the photography category was Patryk Jaracz. His photo essay, “The Dream of Fourteen-Year-Old Yana,” follows the story of a young girl who survived a nighttime attack in Kyiv. She was the only member of her family to survive the Russian missile strike.
Award-winning journalists from TVN and WP.pl
Michał Przedlacki won the video category for his report “Soldiers of Ukraine,” broadcast on TVN’s “Superwizjer.” Through portraits of three women, the author explores the lives of nearly 45,000 Ukrainian women currently serving in the army, 7,000 of them officers. The film’s protagonists are Lyubov, the commander of the artillery division, Sergeant Natalia, and a female sniper serving on the front lines.
It’s a story about the courage of women who decided to take up arms and fight against the Russian occupiers. It’s also a story of their longings and dreams for “life after the war” in a free Ukraine, which, as one of the characters says, “is everything to me now.”
In the video category, Dariusz Kubik, Grzegorz Łakomski and Piotr Świerczek (“Team Without a Role”, TVN24) and Aleksandra Fudala (“Red Plague”, TVP) were also recognized.
In the writing category, the Ryszard Kapuściński Award from the Polish Press Agency (PAP) was presented to Tatiana Kolesnychenko. The jury recognized her for her reportage “Masters of the Body. After All, Only the Facade Remains,” published on the Wirtualna Polska website.
Its subject is the cruelty of Russian soldiers towards Ukrainian women in its most extreme forms. Women of all ages experience sexual violence during war, but few choose to speak out. The author describes the traumatic experiences of 77-year-old Lyudmyla, 61-year-old Tetiana, and Nina – all victims of brutal rape – and their attempts to return to “normalcy,” even though time does not heal wounds. The women say that death would be preferable to the humiliation they endured.
Honorable mentions in the text category were awarded to Ula Idzikowska (“Rabbi Avremel returns to the West Bank”, NEW-Online) and Szymon Opryszek (“Is Europe threatened by the fentanyl crisis?”, OKO.press).
The jury also recognized Dorota Kwiatkowska for her debut, “Wałęsa at Bacciarelli’s. The Legend of Solidarity Immortalized at the Royal Castle” (Tygodnik Powszechny). In it, the journalist describes the history of conservation work on a historic ceiling painting by Marcello Bacciarelli, set against the backdrop of Poland’s political history in the early 1980s and the arrest and internment of Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa. Janusz Strzałecki spent seven years reconstructing the damaged ceiling painting, and he gave the face of a turbaned merchant Wałęsa. He died in 1983 without completing the work. “Every time I passed through the Audience Chamber, the professor would lie on a deck chair placed on scaffolding, painting like that. He never told me about Wałęsa, but it was talked about at the Castle,” former director of the Royal Castle, Professor Andrzej Rottermund, told the author. Kwiatkowska recalls the artistic traditions of the Strzałecki family.
Dariusz Rosiak with a special award
Radio and print journalist, reporter, creator and main host of “Report on the State of the World,” Dariusz Rosiak, has been awarded the special Ryszard Kapuściński Award from the Polish Press Agency (PAP) “for explaining the world.” Rosiak is the creator and main host of “Report on the State of the World,” which he hosted on Polish Radio 3 for 13 years. Since March 2020, the program has been funded by listeners and is available as a podcast.
The journalist has been involved in the media since the 1980s. He previously worked for the French radio station RFI. He spent the 1990s in London, co-founding the BBC’s Polish section. He has collaborated with “Życie Warszawy,” “Newsweek,” “Przekrój,” “Forum,” “Polityka,” and the Polish Press Agency. For many years, he wrote for “Rzeczpospolita,” particularly its “Plus Minus” supplement. The magazine with which he has collaborated longest and most closely is “Tygodnik Powszechny.”
He is the author of books on foreign affairs: “Grain and Blood. A Journey in the Footsteps of Middle Eastern Christians” (nominated for the 2016 Nike Literary Award, Beata Pawlak Award), “Faces of Great Britain,” “The Heat. The Breath of Africa,” and “White and Red. The Secret of Sat-Okha,” as well as books on Polish affairs: “The Great Refusal. Agent, Philosopher, Anti-Communist” and “A Man with a Stiff Neck. The Story of Father Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel.” In 2015, he received the Ryszard Kapuściński Polish Press Agency Award for his “Report on the State of the World” from Kurdistan. In 2020, he was named Grand Press Journalist of the Year.
The award winners were selected by a jury chaired by PAP Editor-in-Chief Wojciech Tumidalski. Honorary chairpersons were Rene Maisner and Mirosław Ikonowic, a friend of the Polish reportage legend who has been associated with PAP since 1953. The jury also included Zuzanna Dąbrowska, Bogusław Chrabota, Jarosław Gugała, Andrzej Grygiel, Karolina Lewicka, Wojciech Jagielski, Beata Lubecka, Cezary Łazarewicz, Maciej Nabrdalik, Mateusz Sosnowski, Agnieszka Szydłowska, Beata Zawrzel, and Michał Żakowski.
The final gala of the 7th PAP Ryszard Kapuściński Award took place at the Polish Theatre. The award was established in 2010 to promote values dear to both the agency and the event’s patron. The award winners were selected by a jury chaired by PAP Editor-in-Chief Wojciech Tumidalski. Honorary chairpersons are Rene Maisner, Ryszard Kapuściński’s daughter, and Mirosław Ikonowicz, a friend of the Polish reportage legend who has been associated with PAP since 1953.
Source: PAP