Copyright, Plagiarism, Ethics

By Dickson Jere

Lately, whenever I post an article, some media houses immediately copy and past on their pages without acknowledging where they got the text. I must admit few such as Kalemba and Smart Eagles always credit the source. I thought I should do a small refresher brief hereunder.

(Copyright)
Here is the thing. In law, there is nothing wrong to write about same event or incident or even using same information. However, it is against the copyright when you copy and paste. You must write in your own way. Each person has own style of writing which cannot be copied. In short copyright law does not protect the idea but the EXPRESSION of the idea! That is why you don’t need to register at PACRA to protect your copyright as it subsists immediately you write. Each writing is unique!

So, if you are lazy to completely rewrite something, just credit the source. Otherwise stealing literal works is crime.

(Plagiarism)
No media organization or individual can ever be happy to be associated with plagiarism. Stealing people’s literal works and passing them on as theirs. Media houses gain respect by their own ability to produce original works. You see unlike photographs that may look similar even when taken by different photographers, writing is never the same. Nobody ever expresses himself or herself in similar way. That is why one can easily pick or Identify stolen works.

(Ethics)
One of the biggest issue which every media outlet should invest in, is ethical journalism. Get your page administrators to gain basic understanding of this concept of ethical reporting. One of the key issues is to always acknowledge source. Even big media outlets such BBC, CNN, Sky will always tell you that the story is sourced from wires such as Reuters, AP or AFP. Reasons being that if story is fake, you can easily pinpoint the source and apologize.

Anyway, as a contribution to the media, I offer myself to those who needs basic training for free! Get in touch in the month of May – World Press Freedom Week – and I will conduct short training for your page admin staff or reporters. Together we can improve the landscape.