JOURNALISM: PLAGIARISM and the so-called " Ponente System"

OPINION :

Many has questioned the credibility of a report or of an article whethere there are factual information or merely heresays and telltales..

Getting excerpts from books and quatations without the acknowledgement of the contributors and/or the orignal writer is considered "plagiarism". In so many ways, its rampant in journalism. Editing someones work and taking the result as his own original work.

Below are articles taken showing how plagiarism is committed even in the field of media reporting Source: abs cbn news

PLAGIARISM

When former broadsheet reporter Anthony Ian Cruz wrote an exclusive on a US journal's assessment of the Arroyo administration, he had no idea that his story would be copied by a rival publication a day later.

Cruz, a former Malaya reporter who now writes for the Asahi Shimbun, said he published his story "Influential US journal says GMA sank RP into morass of corruption" on the January 28 issue of Malaya. That evening, he said he was surprised to see an article on the same topic appear on the Web site of The Daily Tribune.

"Everyday, as a journalist, it's part of my daily regimen to check the news Web sites and see what our paper published and what other papers publish. We're all rivals in the field so we want to know what the other papers are doing," he said in an interview on ANC's "Media in Focus."

He said a comparison of his and the Tribune articles showed that aside from the first four paragraphs, the Tribune article was "almost an exact copy of what appeared in Malaya."

Cruz said he immediately informed his editor about his discovery but did not know if a formal complaint was made. He also said he had second thoughts about filing a complaint, thinking that it would be a waste of time. "The other writer could just deny it...It was the principal responsibility of my paper. It was in the paper's best interest to protect its reporters," he said.

Cruz's story and the experience of PCIJ multimedia editor Alecks Pabico are discussed in even greater detail in the story "Plagiarists: The Vampire Chroniclers", which appeared in the May-June 2008 issue of the Philippine Journalism Reports. The story reveals how Pabico discovered that an article he wrote for PCIJ two years ago was quoted heavily in a Manila Times report without attribution.

Pabico filed a complaint with the Manila Times, which prompted the broadsheet to issue an apology and a suspension on the writer who copied Pabico's work.

PONENTE SYSTEM

Teodoro says one problem in newsrooms when faced by accusations of plagiarism is that editors rarely take action. "Journalism in the Philippines tends to be an old boys' club where you don't want to rock the boat, you don't want to antagonize anyone in the profession. You don't want to quarrel with another editor." He says the problem with this attitude is that it treats plagiarism lightly instead of an offense against the craft.

"It lowers the standard of performance. We tend not to demand too much. Somebody copies something, well, that's a minor thing, and it's a form of condonation. I think the standards of writing of any kind should be the same whether it's journalism or in academia," he says. --David Dizon/abs-cbnNEWS.com