Plagiarism: A ticklish issue

LIGHTER MOMENTS
Hilarion ‘Abe’ Pawid

Newspapermen, news hens and journalists in the country may adopt two lines of thought on plagiarism in the exercise of their trade.

One would be pushing the pen along ethics institutionalized and traced to the 18th century and the other, in accordance to a Supreme Court (SC) ruling on plagiarism charges against SC Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, defines plagiarism as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work." In latin, it means "hijacking".

The issue of plagiarism surfaced this year when Justice Del Castillo was accused of plagiarism on a decision he penned concerning the victims of World War II sexual slavery in the barracks of Japanese soldiers around 67 years ago.

It took a little time for the high court to decide the case that involved the fate of a sitting colleague. Meanwhile a number of lawyers protested the seeming immoral act of a member of the high court and sought his resignation.

Most vocal were barristers from the University of the Philippines College of Law. "Plagiarism is not a crime but is disapproved more on the grounds of moral offense" according to Wikipedia.

That philosophy could be one reason the accusation against Del Castillo did not prosper. The SC held that copying another's writings and passing those off as one's own can be excused provided there is "lack of malicious intent".

The present ethical practice and philosophy finds its roots to the 18th century where it finds plagiarism as "immoral". Wikipedia says: "the 18th century new morals have been institutionalized and enforced prominently in the sectors of academia and journalism".

It further says ". . . plagiarism is now considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics". Since plagiarism is not a crime, the institutions of learning and media outfits can only impose sanctions such as suspension and termination. The academe and media cannot gamble their respective credibility and integrity. The only recourse would be handing the "pink slip" to guilty scribes.

While the number of practitioners is increasing in the fourth estate, plagiarized articles are difficult to trace. This is aggravated with the vast data resources in the internet.

However, for students at the Ateneo School of Law, they will continue to hone their legal skills in accordance to ethical traditions hundreds of years ago. Recently, the Jesuit-run University stood firm to abide by its own rules on plagiarism ". . .where the lack of malicious intent is not a defense". -(hilarion "abe" pawid)