On Oct. 11 the Austrian journalist Otmar Lahodynsky, President of the Austrian section of AEJ, received the Polish order “Cavalier’s cross of the order of merit of the Repubic of Poland” – awarded by the Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.
Lahodynsky, 57, European
editor of the Austrian news-magazine “profil”, received it for his achievements in reporting about Poland since 1980 and for strengthening relations between Poland and Austria.
Poland’s ambassador to Austria, Jerzy Marganski: “The order expresses recognition of your merits as courageous reporter in the Eighties of last century and as competent expert on Poland who supports till today the contacts between Austria and Poland with great commitment and conviction”.
In December 1981 Lahodynsky was the only Austrian journalist present in Poland when martial law was declared and the independent trade-union Solidarity was dissolved.
One of his fotos was published on the cover of “Time”- magazine and “Paris Match” (foto).
Later, Lahodynsky reported about Poland’s accession to the EU.
Recently, he interviewed politicians like Donald Tusk, Aleksander Kwasniewski and –after the crash of the official plane in Smolensk in April 2010 – the Polish film-director Andrzej Wajda. He organized a screening of Wajda’s film “Katyn” in Vienna.