Daily Rage Vol. 5: Struma.bg




  • In Archive
  • 2014-11-19 22:53:17
  • By
  • 1107 Views
As a graduating senior studying journalism at AUBG, I am at a crossroads. I love everything about journalism and mass communications. I am especially devoted to hard news journalism, and yet I doubt that I will practice that profession in my home country, Bulgaria. To me journalism, in its essence, is a noble profession of telling the truth and nothing else. However, in Bulgaria I do not see that happening too often. Before anyone thinks that I am one of the many disheartened Bulgarians, who complain without back-up, let me tell you how the daily medium Struma.bg “borrowed” one of AUBG Daily’s articles. [caption id="attachment_23492" align="alignleft" width="280" caption="Screenshot from the article in Struma.bg"][/caption] On Nov. 9, 2014, I got a message from AUBG student Igor Myakotin with a link toward an article in Struma.bg, which he suspected was copied from AUBG Daily. The article was about the AUBG student Minka Dorer. On Oct. 26, 2014, AUBG Daily published a story about Minka written by our owl Zora Gouhary. As the story in Struma.bg really seemed very similar in content to our material, we asked Minka if she had given an interview to any other media. As Minka’s answer was negative, I contacted our faculty adviser, Assistant Professor Mark Wollemann, for advice. After a quick consultation with him, I wrote to Struma.bg, in the capacity of AUBG Daily’s President,  and asked them to give us credit for the piece along with an apology, as it was obvious that they got the information from AUBG Daily. Minka had not talked to any other medium. I did not miss to mention that should they refuse, AUBG Daily would have no other choice but to make the matter public and seek legal consultation. One day later, in response, I got the following e-mail (translation from Bulgarian): “Hello Vesselina, I am the author of the story about Minka Dorer, and I do admit that I used the text from your medium, but the pictures I took from the Facebook profile of the young girl. In the meantime, I did contact Minka and she said she was ready to give an interview to newspaper “Struma,” which got postponed due to her schedule. You are right that I had to cite your medium, but since I had the basic okay by Minka to popularize her story and since the story was not copied, but paraphrased, I missed that part. To compensate you, can I give you Minka’s interview without you citing us? I will give it to you the day before it comes out in “Struma,” so you’ll be the first to have it. By the way, I believe we can collaborate; AUBG is one of my beats, and I think I can be useful to your medium because of the information about the University that I have as someone on the outside. Vanya Simeonova” [caption id="attachment_23497" align="aligncenter" width="429" caption="Image courtesy of: copydesk.com"][/caption] As any JMC student and student media representative would probably do, in my response to the reporter, I openly criticized a few points in the email she sent me. First, I found no sound reason behind the reporter not citing AUBG Daily because Minka agreed to give an interview that had not happened at that point in time. If she had given an interview, they would have had a story. However, at that point the only reason they had a story was the fact that they used the reporting in which one of AUBG Daily’s owls invested time and effort. I emphasized the fact that we already have a story on Minka, so their interview was of little use to us; on top of that, we could approach Minka much more easily than they could. More than anything else, I wrote that I would never allow for our medium to use other people’s work without giving proper credit or any credit for that matter. I repeated my request for them to give us credit and an apology. For a second time I reminded the reporter that the steps we would take if our request was not met would be to publicize this act of plagiarism and seek legal counsel.  Under the circumstances, I expressed no desire to cooperate with a medium that did not follow basic journalistic standards of ethics. That email I wrote on Nov. 13, 2014. By Nov. 17, we had no messages from reporter Vanya Simeonova in the AUBG Daily mailbox. Consequently, I wrote another email, asking if they were going to meet our requests or we should proceed with our plans. The following day I received an answer (translation from Bulgarian): “Miss, I did not get exactly what you want, but if you plan to do journalism, it would be good for you to understand that there is no monopoly over the news, especially after the invention of the Internet. By the way, in the last issue of BG VOICE, there is a copy of MY story about Minka Dorer (even with the editorial mistake from newspaper “Struma,” with a byline of a male name and no mention of our newspaper). This happens with every issue of that newspaper actually and not only there. I have no intentions of seeking an apology from my colleagues there, because if my material is public, then everybody can use it the way they find fit. Therefore, here’s an advice: think of a way to get your website out from the tight audience of AUBG, so that someone can copy you tomorrow and not newspaper “Struma.” I sincerely wish you that.” [caption id="attachment_23507" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="Image courtesy of poynter.org"][/caption] I found many wrong things in the situation I am describing, the worst of which I found is in that message. I responded that my desire was very clear, to get AUBG Daily its proper credit and an apology, which any true journalist, in my opinion, would have done. I explicitly wrote that I cannot see my request as an attempt to have a monopoly over the news. If she wanted a piece on our student that badly, I urged the reporter to do her own reporting, take an interview and write up the piece, just like AUBG Daily’s owl, Zora, did, instead of paraphrasing our story without credit. I reminded her that because of actions like hers, now the material has been “borrowed” by another newspaper. I pointed out that it doesn’t seem like our audience is that narrow since Struma.bg has been audacious enough to use our materials without giving us proper credit.  I expressed my sincere hopes that AUBG Daily will never become anything like Struma.bg, because we do value high journalistic standards. Once again, I reminded her that we will have to publicize the story and seek legal consultation.   After an email like that, I felt obliged to make this story public. Another consultation with Prof. Wollemann followed and I wrote to Struma.bg once more. I offered them a chance to make an official statement on behalf of the newspaper, so that the actions of one reporter do not speak about their whole medium. At the time of writing this piece, I still had not received an answer by Struma.bg. I also wrote to the Union of Bulgarian Journalists to ask for an expert opinion, and I sincerely hope they will give us one. In the meantime, I can only give my humble opinion on the matter. For a long time now, at AUBG Daily we have been discussing the wrong practices in Bulgarian journalism – stolen articles, twisted facts, quotes out of context, etc. We have talked about tackling this issue so many times, but it is hard to do it without bias and with concrete facts. In this situation, there is bias, obviously; it is our own medium that suffered from unethical journalistic practices. However, there are clear facts as well, which supersede the bias. In the place of AUBG Daily, you can put the name of any other medium in Bulgaria, any official medium. What happened would still be wrong. It is wrong for a reporter to believe that consent for an interview equals having the right to tell a person’s story using someone else’s reporting. Being a reporter is not that easy. Gathering information is not that easy. One reporter can get a much better interview than another; hence, two materials on the same person could differ drastically in quality. I doubt that the act of paraphrasing someone’s work without credit needs much explanation as to why it is wrong. AUBGers, at least, have heard a lot about plagiarizing. It saddens me to see that a Bulgarian journalist who holds that title thinks that if a “material is public, then everybody can use it the way they find fit.” It saddens me also that the story of Minka Dorer has been used and popularized in such a way, even if Minka has agreed to talk to other media. What saddens me most though is that a student medium has more integrity and understanding of journalistic ethical standards than a supposedly professional Bulgarian medium does. I hope that the reporter and Struma.bg will see the wrong in their actions and will remedy the situation. If not, being a disheartened journalism student from Bulgaria does not seem that unjustified. AUBG Daily will keep you updated on any further developments and information available.