Jarosław Ziętara
Year: 1992
Nationality: Poland
Killed by: Criminal Group
Location: Poznań, Poland
Press organization: Gazeta Poznańska
What's Jarosław Ziętara's story?
Journalist Jarosław Ziętara disappeared on September 1, 1992, in Poznań, western Poland. After years of delay in investigating his disappearance and suspected death, and a pressure campaign by the journalist’s family and colleagues to take action, prosecutors in 2011 reopened the investigation and determined that Ziętara had likely been killed in connection with his reporting on alleged corruption. Two trials—one of the alleged perpetrators and one of the man who allegedly ordered the killing—were ongoing as of August 2021. Ziętara, a 24-year-old investigative journalist for regional daily newspaper Gazeta Poznańska, disappeared in the morning of September 1, 1992, after he left his home to go to the editorial office in Poznań, western Poland, according to a 2008 report by his employer, a 2012 report by public broadcaster TVP, and a timeline of the case published on a commemorative website, maintained by Ziętara’s family and friends, which collects and archives documents and articles. (Gazeta Poznańska merged with Głos Wielkopolski in 2006.) On September 2, 1992, local police in Poznań were notified of his disappearance, according to the commemorative website; however, the police did not investigate at that time, saying he had likely disappeared of his own accord or committed suicide, according to Głos Wielkopolski and the commemorative website. Prior to his disappearance, Ziętara had published investigative articles about alleged irregularities and corruption connected to the privatization of state-owned companies, as well as pieces about the alleged role of the political elite and the secret services in these scandals; he also covered human trafficking and smuggling along the German-Polish and Belorussian-Polish borders, according to reports by Głos Wielkopolski and private news channel TVN24. Along with working for Gazeta Poznańska, he contributed to the local edition of Gazeta Wyborcza and to the Wprost weekly, according to those reports.
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