Cezary Gmyz, author of the original article: photo - PAP/Maciej Chmiel
The Rzeczpospolita daily has printed a full apology from the paper's publisher, Presspublica.
“We consider the article to be unreliable and inadequately documented,” concluded the Supervisory Board of Presspublica.
“Regardless of what the prosecutor ultimately establishes, at the current level of knowledge, the publishing of the headline “TNT on the Tupolev” was a gross abuse.”
Owner of Presspublica, Grzegorz Hajdorowicz, issued a separate statement, declaring that “reliability must be our highest value.
“I apologise to our readers for all of this,” he stressed.
The publication of the original article on 30 October sparked a political storm.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of opposition party Law and Justice, gave a press conference describing the 2010 plane crash “as an unprecedented crime” that amounted to “the murder of 96 people, including the Polish president [Kaczynski's late brother Lech Kaczynski].”
His statement echoed less explicit, yet consistently made claims made by his party over the last two years.
However, Poland's Military Prosecutor's Office was swift to pour cold water on the article's assertions.
Referring to the article in Rzeczpospolita, publisher Grzegorz Hajdorowicz said that “the reckless actions of a few people have once again triggered off the Polish-Polish war,” referring to the bitter conflict between the government and Law and Justice, and the deep divisions in Polish society itself.
Reactions to the Smolensk tragedy have split society, with about 30 percent of the population believing that the crash was a result of sabotage.
Besides the dismissal of the author of the 30 October article in Rzeczpospolita, Cezary Gmyz, the supervisory board also called for the sacking of chief editor Tomasz Wroblewski, and two other senior members of the editorial staff. (nh)