COPYCATS, PLAGIARISTS large and Small

I have been copied. Am I flattered? - since imitation is supposed to be the highest form of flattery.
My recent blog, giving unsolicited advice to Dan Brown's publishers re charges of plagiarism has elicited a comment or two. Right now the media reports are working us up about students copying their assigments from internet sites. Now this is a skill that requires you to be a dab hand at `surfing the net'. This is a habit I have not developed, neither the surfing, nor the skilled copying. But when a new friend asked if I had ever had a book published, I referred him to the internet and told him to type my name and add Zimbabwe on the end of it. {MMPZ}It dawned on me that I myself had not taken this ego trip for several years and now was a good time to check. I found, very flatteringly, a substantial body of work. Most rewarding was the occasional reference to my published Who's Whos of Rhodesia's and Zimbabwe's African nationalist leaders. (End of commercial). Most satisfying, however was to discover that my work is being plagiarized by Zimbabwe's state media. Nowadays, I have no time at all for the Herald, that grossly defective instrument for the disemination of information. Its daily dose of ruling party propaganda is so blatant as to be fairly harmless - but have a look at this which appeared on the internet in the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe Report No.38, after the ste madia's eulogising of the dead Vice President Muzenda:

"ZBC also changed its programming to make way for documentaries on Muzenda. For instance, ZTV devoted time from 7pm to 8pm from Monday to Thursday to a special programme where ZANU PF officials discussed their selected positive personal experiences of Muzenda.
This abject eulogizing saw The Herald (22/9) carry (sic) a plagiarised obituary, Life, tribulations of relentless fighter. The article, which was written by Shingai Rukwata Ndoro, was apparently lifted from Diana Mitchell’s book entitled African Nationalist Leaders in Zimbabwe - Who is Who 1980...
and
(re the closure of the independent Daily News):
"While the government-controlled media [avoided such analysis and] gave the impression that the closure of the paper was lawful, The Standard (28/9) tried to expose how the State was selectively applying the law by failing to reprimand media practitioners working for the government-controlled media. It reported that Zimbabwe Union of Journalists had petitioned ZIMPAPERS to take action against its circulation manager Rukwata Ndoro, who plagiarised Mitchell’s book in his obituary of Muzenda. According to ZUJ, Ndoro “ is neither trained nor registered and has been churning article after article, sometimes as a columnist and the latest as a reporter.” Despite this, no arrest has been made so far. Ends"

Now that was something I lifted from the internet. With attribution of course.
As to talk of arresting the hopeless Ndoro, I must say I am more flattered than offended. His bosses in the ruling party would never have allowed my tribute to Muzenda, written 25 years ago when things in the Zimbabwe garden were rosy, to appear under my name in today's screwed up Zimbabwe media. But plagiarism is plagiarism and is not to be recommended.




Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell