Journalists in hot water over report of soldier's death

Last week in Iraq a 31 year-old soldier died and three others were injured when the Humvee they were driving hit a land mine. This information shocked the Defense Ministry, not because it did not know of the explosion, but rather because the news was revealed by Internet portal gazeta.pl an hour before ministry officials were able to inform the soldier's family of the tragic incident. "I am disgusted by the action undertaken by Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Jacek Brzuszkiewicz, as well as the journalists at gazeta.pl, who did not consider the wellbeing of the solder's family when reporting the accident," said Defense Minister Aleksander Szczygło during a press conference. He added that legal steps may be taken against the journalists, despite it being later revealed that the family did not learn about the accident from the portal, but directly from Defense Ministry officials as intended. This soldier was the 22nd Polish soldier who was killed on the mission in Iraq. (Rzeczpospolita, November 3-4, p. A8; Gazeta Wyborcza, November 3-4, p. 1) A.K.