Kapuscinski said journalism was not a profession for cynics. Given the volume of information, the speed with which it circulates, and the large number of people who, in one way or another, generate content, I would dare say that communicating is not an activity for cynics. The fact is that, as the capacity to transmit ideas and make them viral increases, it becomes more and more necessary to establish guidelines for ethics and responsibility.
Along with the lack of rigor, the proliferation of unverified news and the rise of fake news, largely derived from the media’s need to be the fastest to publish, gain visibility and generate as much news as possible, appears a new ghost: plagiarism. This practice has become more acute with the development of digital journalism, since the generation of content and the viralization of information by numerous channels has drastically accelerated, diluting authorship and facilitating its appropriation.
Plagiarism has become a more common practice than is believed, and more and more intruders decide to appropriate someone else’s words, usurping the author’s name to market them as if they were their own. On some occasions this action is deliberate. In others, it responds more to a lack of care than to a bad conscious practice, to which we are all susceptible to fall.
However, this does not diminish its seriousness. In any case, this practice, totally reprehensible, becomes even more outrageous if it occurs among those who, in one way or another, are dedicated to the world of communication and dissemination. With plagiarism, not only is there a lack of ethics, but also a lack of truth and rigor in omitting the authorship of the information that is made available to readers.
Furthermore, plagiarism contributes to degrading the professional activity of journalists or those who, from their field of knowledge, contribute to the dissemination of ideas or evidence. If transparency, ethics and responsibility are the golden rules for anyone aspiring to participate in public debate, then how can we invite the reader to think or rethink their positions if we are not even able to shape our own and supplant those of another author ?
In the Latin American context, this concern with intellectual honesty is included in the deontological codes of the main journalists associations in the region. But, in addition, respect for the authorship of data and results is part of the hard core of the rigor norms shared by these associations, as well as others, such as the contextualization of information or transparency. However, establishing codes of conduct is not a sufficient guarantee to avoid practices such as plagiarism.
Among those who collaborate with the media, whether as journalists, writers or experts, there have been numerous cases of plagiarism. Some of them had great repercussions, such as that of Bryce Echenique, who was accused of plagiarizing 16 articles by 15 different authors published in different Peruvian and Spanish media. Others, with lesser repercussions internationally, have affected different journalists. Argentine Guillermo Giacosa was fired from the Peru21 after being accused of plagiarizing texts from international media such as Rebelion, Página 12 and La Jornada. In Colombia, then editor of the international section of El Colombiano, Diana Carolina Jiménez, was also fired in 2016 for plagiarism.
Outside Latin America, there are countless plagiarism experiences by renowned professionals. Jayson Blair copied, when working for The New York Times, information from other media. Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN editor, also fell into temptation, as did Fareed Zakaria, who worked for Time and CNN, and Washington Times columnist Arnaud de Borchgrave. They all had to face the consequences of their actions and their prestige was undermined.
In times of growing distrust, plagiarism only contributes to discrediting the public sphere. The media, as fundamental actors of democracy, have the obligation not only to inform, but also to act ethically, honestly and rigorously, since it constitutes one of the fundamental tools for knowing and interpreting reality. Saving distances, social networks can become a space for knowledge, exchange and discussion. However, in practice, this purpose is often distorted and misinformation and unethical practices distort the role of the media.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that what matters is the stories and shared knowledge, not who tells them. Only then will we be able to let go of our egos and focus on the reality that we are trying to describe or explain, which, in the end, is what really matters.
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