Witold Szabłowski

In 2006, while in Malatya, he became the first Pole to interview Mehmet Ali Ağca's family, the Turkish gunman who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II.

Additionally, he successfully established contact with Oral Celik, the lesser-known organizer of the attack, who also targeted the Polish Pope.

In 2008 he won the 2007 Melchior Wańkowicz Award in the category of Inspiration of the Year for his “devotion to the best traditions of reportage – his honest documentation of aspects of Turkish society not widely known outside of the country, and his concise but vivid use of language”.

He wrote about the situation of women in Turkey who were subjected to rape and honour killing for the "sin" of wanting to decide their own fates.

In 2010 he was the first European journalist to interview Aung San Suu Kyi, the current Burmese Prime Minister, when she was released from home arrest (the one who helped him was Lech Wałęsa).

The English-language publication received the British PEN-Club Award, and “World Literature Today” acknowledged it to be one of the most important books translated into English the previous year.

In 2012, he received a special mention for the Anna Lindh Mediterranean Journalist Award in the press category for his article titled Let Us In, You Bastards!

Szabłowski's main focus is on Ukrainians who at great personal risk provided help to their neighbours, Polish or Jewish.