The list of those accused of plagiarisim in South Africa grows ever longer and increasingly distinguished, let’s have a look: William Mervin Gumede, Antjie Krog, Allister Sparks, Darryl Bristow-Bovey, Jameson Maluleke, Cynthia Vongai.
Take a look at all of those names, what is your first impression? These are some of South Africa’s most gifted writers, they have talent and originality in abundance and yet all of them stand accused of committing writing’s greatest crime, they copied, thinly disguised or used without change, the work of others and passed it off as their own.
What is plagiarism? Wikipedia says: “It is a form of academic dishonesty; it is a matter of deceit: fooling a reader into believing that certain written material is original when it is not—to obtain some sort of personal academic credit or personal recognition.”
The internet has made plagiarism easy, but for authors who ever want to get a book onto Oprah – the guarantee for blockbuster sales – be warned, she now has a special programme that scans every book and matches phrases from the internet, if any are found. She exposes plagiarists. So does the University of Stellenbosch and many international publishers and universities.
Greg Stewart, publisher of The Citizen who recently dismissed journalist Maluleke for plagiarism, says: “Some plagiarists are great talents. Maybe some people think they are bigger than they are, maybe it is some form of God complex; they feel they can get away with it.
“Whatever it is, it really is a disappointment, no-one should be allowed to get away with it. Writing is a craft, it is like someone copying another painter’s work, it is not the original, and to copy it is fraud.”
And yet while we would shun those who tried to pass off the Mona Lisa as their own, and hope the fraudster would go to jail, there is a curious ambivalence about plagiarism – particularly among writers and publishers in South Africa.
We will hound the corrupt in other fields, we will be scathing about the Brett Kebbles and Yengenis, but we often dismiss corruption among the writing class.
Rian Malan, celebrated author of My Traitor’s Heart and latter day Afrikaans rock hero, campaigned vigorously as a writer for many years for royalties to be paid to the family of the South African man who originally wrote the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight, a work copied by dozens of foreign artists.
Malan was successful in his quest and yet when it comes to his craft, writing, he typifies the ambivalence among many about the theft of intellectual copyright.
“To some extent this mania for sniffing out plagiarists betrays a meanness and pettiness. The case against WM Gumede is a case in point. There is no way that was plagiarism,” says Malan.
“Yes, he recycled a bunch of ideas previously put into play by some boring American hack. At that time, on that subject, all liberal pundits were punting the same tired, turgid rubbish. They wanted to say, golly, look at Mbeki’s weird position on Aids.
“If repeating an idea is plagiarism, then The New Yorker writer was a plagiarist, because this was not an original idea. In WMG’s case he was not guilty of anything other than following sheeplike where others led.”
Not quite correct, Rian, Gumede plagiarised some of my work, along with others, and what made it disappointing, in a heavily referenced book is that he could have so easily said in his copy, “Charlene Smith reported—” and yet he did not.
Malan is also less scathing of Bristow-Bovey’s plagiarism.
“He did it because he was drowning in the cruel seas of South African freelance hackdom; because of money. There is not much of it in this game. Everyone thinks they can write, and SA readers are generally incapable of telling the difference between diamonds and drek,” says Malan.
“Darryl produced diamonds, but the effort exhausted him and he remained struggling to make his house payments and drive the sort of car that enabled him to impress stylish Jo’burg women. Somewhere along the line he started throwing other people’s diamonds into the thousands of words he had to write every week to stay alive.”
But that is not quite true. Bristow-Bovey, earned more than the average writer yet was a serial plagiarist, he stole from Jeremy Paxman’s “The English” and from Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a Big Country,” and told journalists: “I don’t consider myself a plagiarist (or) an unoriginal writer.”
In the significant amounts of research one does for a book, it is easier to fail to source a particular quote – a brief quote, however, long tracts are indefensible – than it is in journalism where plagiarism is deliberate.
It is a particular problem for wire agencies, whose hardworking journalists daily see their prose appearing in other media with someone else’s name above it, taking credit for their initiative and research.
Russell Norton, deputy editor of the South African Press Association (Sapa), the main local news agency, which is co-owned by most of newspapers, believes that plagiarism is declining.
“I think more news editors watch the Sapa wire and monitor it, and instances of journalists getting fired deter others,” says Norton.
Indeed, while journalists get fired for plagiarism, not a single book publishing company in South Africa has taken action against writers who have plagiarised, which indicates why the problem is growing in book publishing.
Norton says that plagiarism of Sapa journalist’s copy is “demoralising and demotivating”.
“Stuff is lifted and incorporated into daily news reports either by journalists or a sub-editor with no accreditation to Sapa. Former Sunday Times editor, Ken Owen used to say, ‘I pay a quarter million rand a year for Sapa and I will do with it what I want.’,” says Norton.
“But for a journalist who works hard to get extra comment or extra information and then finds it in a newspaper or magazine under Joe Blogg’s byline, it is depressing.”
Ralston Smith, CEO of the new internet news agency Africa News Dimension says they have found plagiarism to be a significant problem.
“Few people credit you, we have started billing them and are introducing new measures to try and make them pay for some of the copy they now steal.”
“Plagiarism destroys the mettle of the media. I will take the strongest stance against it,” says Stewart of The Citizen.
“Newspapers have an ethical standing in society, if we say that we are going to allow what is essentially fraud in our publication we are destroying our ability to maintain an ethical position. If we are going to take a stance against corruption in business and society and yet allow our own staff members to commit fraud it creates mixed messages.”
He believes that poor pay, under resourced newsrooms – with many forcing journalists to report by email, phone and internet because they cut back on petrol allowances – is not enough to blame plagiarism on.
“It comes down to the ethics of the person; the fact that there is pressure on the newsroom is not anything new. Newspapers have worked on daily deadlines ever since they began. We have enough wire services to use if we are short of news. It’s really sad that so many great talents resort to copying the work of others.”
There is another form of insidious, dangerous plagiarism – journalists taking press releases and putting those unchanged into publications with their own names at the top.
What makes it remarkable is how many business publications in particular fail to notice that the identical story has appeared in publication after publication, but merely with another’s name on top.
In the United States video and audio news releases are common. It means a government or corporate view goes unchallenged. Propaganda reigns. And all because the money men at the news media fail to unleash the resources to ensure integrity.
Chris Vick, a former journalist and director of public relations firm Spin Media, says the use of press releases is obviously great for the publicist, but it does pose an important question about ethics.
“You’re mindful that the press release has been published without anyone noticing what was left out, or without any of the obvious questions being asked— The spin-doctor in you celebrates: Another happy client. But the democrat in you wonders: If it’s this easy, who else is doing it?”
And in South Africa, because so many financial journalists are so poorly skilled, some corporate companies employ communications specialists to write the text, questions and answers for some radio, television and print news services. So instead of getting good probing interviews, you’re getting the message that only the corporate wants delivered.
Washington’s Georgetown University in its text to students on the issue of plagiarism advises: “If you use someone else’s ideas, you should cite the source. If the way in which you are using the source is unclear, make it clear. If you received specific help from someone in writing the paper, acknowledge it.”
I couldn’t have said it better, and so I acknowledged my source, and guess what – it was so easy to do!