How a junior writer violated our trust with you, our readers

By PHYLICIA OPPELT

Editor, Daily Dispatch

BONITA Boni, a junior features writer at the Daily Dispatch, has been dismissed following charges of plagiarism.

The action came after Amanda Bothma, director of the theatre production Clue, claimed that Boni’s review, published on September 10, had been culled from various published
reviews.

After Bothma provided us with evidence of the plagiarism, the newspaper followed its own disciplinary processes.

A subsequent investigation proved that Boni had, indeed, copied other writers’ work without acknowledging any sources.

For example, she wrote: “Do not expect any dramatically shaped story lines here. It is basically a stream of monologues presented by the six would-be murderers, all done in the style of high comedy with a smattering of double entendres.”

The original work, written by Tony Layton for the British Theatre Guide reads: “There is no dramatically shaped story lines here. It is basically a stream of monologues presented by the six would-be murderers; all done in the style of high comedy with a smattering of double entendres in the best Carry On tradition.”

In another example, Boni wrote: “Even the original off-Broadway production in 1994 met with little acclaim. The musical is rife with puns and off-references to other boardgames which, if you are not familiar with them, make the experience very jarring.”

In the Tech Online Edition,
Devdoot Majumdar wrote: “Originally an off-Broadway production in 1994 that met little critical
acclaim, the musical is rife with puns and off-references to other boardgames.”

During our internal investigation, after charging Boni with plagiarism and suspending her until the disciplinary hearing which was held on Monday, we randomly selected her previously published work and checked its sources.

Again, we found examples of plagiarism.

In her explanation of the sanction of dismissal, the chairperson said: “Ms Boni’s behaviour is contrary to the basic ethics of journalism and she has been found guilty of an offence which is condemned by the media industry globally. The sanction of dismissal for plagiarism has been consistently applied countrywide as well as within the Johncom organisation.

“Documentary evidence shows that, when compiling the review of Clue (as in a number of other articles), Ms Boni made extensive use of various articles published on the Internet which she then copied, pasted and published verbatim, or with a word or two changed, under her own name in the Daily Dispatch.”

In her defence, Boni stated that she had been under deadline pressure to write the Clue review in the manner that she did.

“... not having the time led me on to use the research I had done in an unfortunate way.”

In journalism, there is no excuse for plagiarism. Many examples abound of instances where journalists stole from others and presented material under their own bylines. There can be no excuse for what is considered the most important aspect of a journalist’s reputation – the ability to produce work that is original. If other writers’ words are used, they must be acknowledged. This is a standard practice, universally applied.

In what has been perhaps the most shocking recent example of plagiarism, Jayson Blair, a reporter on the US New York Times, was exposed to have committed acts of dishonesty in at least 36 published articles.

For the New York Times, arguably the most respected newspaper in the world, the blow was significant.

Blair, who had a roving reporter brief, “misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York”, the New York Times wrote in 2003.

Also in 2003, South African columnist Darryl Bristow-Bovey was found to have lifted passages from US author Bill Bryson's book Notes from a Big Country for his own book The Naked Bachelor. Subsequent to this, it was also
discovered that he had lifted a
section from British TV personality Jeremy Paxman's book The English for one of his columns.

If Bonita Boni’s plagiarism was a one-off incident, then it could perhaps be explained away as the folly of an inexperienced reporter who did not know better.

But, unfortunately, it was not. This was no one-off incident. It was a consistent pattern of behaviour for Boni.

She has broken the trust between the Daily Dispatch and its readers by giving them work that was not her own. She broke the trust between the newspaper and herself by presenting work that was not her own.

In the process, she has not only damaged her own reputation but also that of the Daily Dispatch.

This newspaper’s existence rests on a transaction with its readers – that we will publish articles that are honest and trustworthy. Boni’s actions violated this.

For all the instances of plagiarism, the Daily Dispatch would like to unreservedly apologise to its readers and to Amanda Bothma, the director of Clue, as well
as its cast.

And we apologise to those
journalists whose work was stolen.