Plagiarism and the 'ponente' system
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.
Nothing new
Luis Teodoro, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communications, says the problem of plagiarism is nothing new in the field of journalism. He recalls the case of one opinion columnist who was accused of plagiarism at least three times before he was let go.
The columnist's defense? "He said he had a photographic memory and what he read eventually found its way in his columns," he said.
He also recalls the case of a philosophy student who was accused of plagiarism because his article in the UP Collegian copied ideas from philosopher Bertrand William Russell.
Teodoro, who is deputy director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, says there are telltale signs in determining if an article or thesis is copied heavily from other sources. He says that aside from lifting entire portions of text, plagiarism could also mean quotations without proper attribution.
"If there are exact quotations [from a published work without attribution], it's a sure sign that there was plagiarism. In Alecks' case, there were entire portions lifted from his article. It's an important issue with academia and journalism. It's the theft of somebody's work," he told ANC.
He says that in news articles, all information that is not self-evident should be attributed. "In journalism, where did this info come from? Any information that is not self-evident should be attributed. Does the journalist have personal knowledge? Who is the source? The source has to be cited."
Citing the Pabico case, he says the plagiarism was made worse because the writer attributed it to an unnamed source.
Teodoro says the availability of information on the Internet has made it easier for journalists to plagiarize. "It's easier to do it now because of the availability of information on the Internet. Before, journalists had to go to the library and look through books and old newspapers to get any information. Now you can just use your computer to copy and paste entire portions of text," he says.
On the other hand, the Internet also makes it easier for journalists to catch the plagiarists. UP professor Danilo Arao says journalists could use Google to narrow down an Internet search to a group of words used in their articles.
Ponente system
Teodoro says another form of plagiarism that is happening right now in journalistic circles is the "ponente" system. He says the ponente system is a twist on the Supreme Court ponente system where only one judge or justice writes the decision on the case and everyone signs.
"Every beat reporter knows about the ponente system. In certain beats, one writer is asked to write the story for everyone else. It's plagiarism by consensus. The beat reporters pick up the story and make a few minor changes before passing it on to their editors. Some get caught because the stories that come out in the dailies are the same," he says.
Teodoro says the ponente system is generally accepted by beat reporters because of the demands of filling a daily quota of stories. He recalls that when PJR Reports did a story on the ponente system in a particular beat, the reporters vowed to get even by ostracizing PJR reporters.
Teodoro says the consequence of the ponente system is that it discourages enterprise reporting and multiplies mistakes. "If the original story has errors, then everyone who copies it multiplies the mistakes. It poisons the well of information and institutionalizes errors," he says.
UP professor Danilo Arao says pack reporting is also a form of plagiarism. He says one of his former students revealed that he felt ostracized by the regular beat reporters after he refused to go with them. In some beats, pack reporters agree on an embargo on a particular story if they had filled their daily quota and ostracize a reporter who "violates" the embargo.
"He had to be more enterprising to fill the quota. For reporters, you don't have to go with the flow. It's much harder to write the stories but you do it the more ethical way and you serve the readers better," he says.
Cruz said that in the foreign affairs beat, the reporters always went together but disbanded when it came to actually writing their stories. He admitted, however, that he was once asked by fellow reporters to share his sources on a particular story, which he refused.
Consequences
Arao says that in the academe, it is fairly easy to spot if a student plagiarized someone else's work. Some of the easier-to-spot mistakes are students who send in thesis papers with changing fonts or even changing styles of spelling from American to British English. Penalties for plagiarism include a one-year suspension to outright expulsion. He says he knows of at least one graduating student of UP Diliman who was expelled because of plagiarism.
He says the same standards to students should apply to journalists as well. "You have to establish a firm connection between training and practice. One of the ways to do that is to improve the training of journalists," he says.
Cruz says the practice of plagiarism is a betrayal of the journalistic profession. "It's a deception against the readers. You are not giving the readers the entire truth. It's a betrayal of the trust between the journalist and the reader."
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
