The cases of plagiarism in journalism will be reported and made public within a nationwide campaign that will be carried out by the Press Council. Within the campaign, an application will be made available on www.mediaforum.md for publishing proofs of plagiarizing of news, feature reports, investigations and other journalistic products, IPN reports.
Press Council head Ludmila Andronic has told IPN that the cases of plagiarism have increased in number. Some of the media outlets appropriate successful journalistic products, especially investigations that hold great interest. “These products are the intellectual property of the media outlets that generated them and their plagiarizing without the consent of the copyright owners is nothing else but a theft. By this campaign, we want to make the journalists and managers of media outlets to respect the rights of their guild colleagues,” she stated.
According to the secretary of the Press Council Petru Macovei, the person who will report violations of the Deontological Code will have to annex materials to prove the plagiarism. Within the campaign, there will be presented not only cases of unauthorized copying of journalistic products, but also photos and graphic materials.
Director of the weekly “Ziarul de Garda” Alina Radu has told IPN that the newspaper will join in this campaign that is absolutely necessary. “We no longer know how to fight appropriation, thefts and plagiarism. We do not know how to describe these already,” she stated. According to the journalist, plagiarism is discouraging more the investigative reporters, who often expose themselves to risks and use costly means, while other media outlets simply appropriate the content without quoting the source and without respecting the journalists’ work.
Head of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac said there are journalists in Moldova who deal only with copying. This activity should be combated because the journalistic work, especially the investigative one, implies risks and resources. “Usually, the journalist is the one who finds the subject, documents this and reaches conclusions, revealing particular problems that are hidden. This is huge work,” she stated.
The Press Council calls on the representatives of the mass media to become involved in the promotion of the campaign and to report cases of plagiarism.
