Los Cínicos No Sirven Para Este Oficio - Ryszard Kapuściński

Rating: ★★★

17/05/17

...our profession can't be practiced correctly by someone who is a cynic. It is important to

point out the difference: one thing is to be skeptical, realistic, prudent. That is absolutely necessary, otherwise, there wouldn't be journalism. Another thing is to be a cynic, an attitude which is incompatible with being a journalist. Cynicism is an inhuman attitude that automatically pushes us away from our profession - if we take it seriously. [...]

As you know, every year more than one hundred journalists are killed and many more are imprisoned or tortured. In different parts of the world, this is a dangerous profession. The person who is willing to do this job and to leave everything for it, considering the risks and suffering involved, cannot be a cynic. (53)

This book includes three interviews of Kapuściński, a Polish journalist, reporter and writer. Only the first one turned out to be interesting and enriching - concerning journalism, of course.

* Photo credit: Book cover via Goodreads.