Editor in chief says code is a compilation of international papers’ best practices and should be credited as such

Originally published in Communicate, October 2007

“Plagiarism exists in many forms, from the wholesale lifting of someone else’s writing to the publication of a press release as news without attribution,” says the Gulf News ethics policy, published on the UAE daily’s Web site. “Staff writers’ work should be an original work. Do not borrow someone else’s words without attribution.”

Although there is no attribution, this section of the policy bears a striking similarity to the San Jose Mercury News, whose ethics policy, on their Web site, reads: “Plagiarism exists in many forms, from the wholesale lifting of someone else’s writing to the publication of a press release as news without attribution. The daily newspaper should be an original work. Do not borrow someone else’s words without attribution.”

Other sections of Gulf News’s policy have been lifted from papers including the Los Angeles Times.

When asked whether Gulf News has cribbed its ethics section on, well, cribbing, editor in chief Abdul Hamid Ahmad says, “We mentioned on that [Web page that] our code of ethics is lifted from other newspapers’ codes of practice. We mention in the source that this ethics code is based on the ethics codes of [other newspapers]. … The source is supposed to be there. Please check it again.”

We did. It isn’t sourced.

Oops.