Bastions Of Truth

"... plagiarism is against journalistic ethics; it brings discredit on both the individual and the organisation and damages their credibility and reputation. Trust and authenticity are qualities difficult to acquire and easy to lose but much prized by media organisations in the global proliferation of internet information sources. Accusations should be taken seriously by both journalists and editors."

Informed opinion on the recent alleged plagiarism by Daily Telegraph journalist Liz Hunt of one of Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah's blog posts, by someone who - with feet in the blogger, journo and editor camps (yes, I'm aware that makes her sound like a tripod) - is more than qualified to comment.

When I first heard about this I shrugged my shoulders. It happens. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but I've encountered three instances of my own copyright-protected work reappearing elsewhere over the past decade or so: two direct steals and a third piece with a very familiar structure and select phrases. All by well-known organisations.

However, Rachel's post made me think again. Truth is a slippery concept, as anyone who has studied history knows. The reality is that it's a series of (sometimes disputable) "facts" reported from a multiplicity of different perspectives, which somehow come together to form the big-picture whole. It's not perfect, but it's the best approach we've got.

"Truth" requires research, sifting, evaluating, editing and re-telling. The skill with which these techniques are exercised is the basis on which reputations are built. I'm more of a BBC News, Guardian and Times man myself, but I recognise the Telegraph's similar reputation of "quality", even though I might not quite share its view of the world.

This is why a Telegraph editor needs to provide some kind of response to this issue. To a certain extent, the details of the response itself are unimportant. It can say that it upholds the complaint, that it rigorously denies it, or that it agrees to differ and to print an attribution so readers can make their own minds up. Ongoing silence would be misguided.

We need our bastions of truth: reliable, open and fair sources of fact and opinion. However, that's not enough these days. As the old hierarchies disintegrate, we now expect a two-way dialogue with our symbols of authority (however benign). We have increasingly short patience with, and mutinous disrespect towards, those that treat us with indifference.

Posted by Hg on Wednesday 13 June 2007 at 15:42.
Received 1 comments so far.

真是太喜欢了！
very good!

Comment by koowo2 on Sunday 08 July 2007 at 06:19.

http://www.hydragenic.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hydragen/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1845

The previous post was links for 2007-06-11.

The next post is links for 2007-06-13.

All original material on this site is © Hydragenic, 2002-2009. Extracts of other people's work are used for the purpose of criticism, review or news reporting, in line with the "fair dealing" (or "fair use") principle.