New newspaper chief appointed after Smolensk disaster explosives story debacle
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
20.12.2012 09:36
Boguslaw Chrabota has been appointed as new editor-in-chief of the Rzeczpospolita newspaper after the former chief resigned following incorrect reports claimed that explosive had been found on the 2010 Smolensk disaster plane wreck.
Boguslaw Chrabota: photo - PAP/Bartlomiej Zborowski
Boguslaw Chrabota's appointment was confirmed by the Presspublica publishers, who own Rzeczpospolita, one of Poland's most important titles and published, off and on, since 1920.
Chrabota, one of the founders of the private Polsat television channel, will take over at the newspaper from 2 January.
On 30 October this year, Poland’s Military Prosecutor's Office denied a Rzeczpospolita exclusive that traces of explosives had been found on the wreckage of the TU-154 that crashed near Smolensk in western Russia on 10 April 2012.
If correct the story would have added fuel to those in Poland, such as opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski – the twin brother of President Lech Kaczynski, who died alongside 95 others in the plane crash – who believe that the tragedy was not simply due to 'human error' as had been found by two official reports by Russia and Poland.
Rzeczpospolita was forced to publish a full correction and apology for the erroneous report and the publishers sacked editor-in-chief Tomasz Wroblewski. (pg)