Zombo journalists declare war on plagiarism in local media

Zombo, Uganda: The leadership of Zombo Press Association, an umbrella body for professional journalists in Zombo district, has vowed to crack down on what it describes as “rampant and deliberate” plagiarism of its members’ articles by media houses and practitioners who fail to give due credit.

This unprofessional act had been left at Large and unattended to hence breeding unprofessional practices and presenting a very thin line of differentiation with citizen journalism.

Speaking to DailyExpress, ZPA Executive Director Pithua Alex said the practice had been left unchecked for too long, eroding professional standards and blurring the line between trained journalism and citizen reporting.

“Most publications and journalists are picking our content, editing it, and using it on radios, websites, and social media without acknowledging the source or the author. This is intellectual property theft, and it is punishable and attracts litigation,” Pithua said.

The three-year-old association has now put in place mechanisms to pursue litigation against individuals or outlets found guilty of plagiarising members’ work. Pithua stressed that these measures aim to restore sanity and uphold journalism’s core principles in the Alur Sub-region and beyond.

Rwothomio Mike, the PRO of the Association, recounted a recent incident in which a radio station allegedly lifted one of his reports about an incident in Erussi Sub-county and published it verbatim on social media without credit.

“I wrote a story a few days ago about an incident in Erussi sub county and the story tip was shared on the Westnile Police page for Journalists around the region I was surprised to see a radio station within picking up exactly my article write-up, owning it and sharing all over the social media platforms without any aspect of attribution,” he remarked.

Plagiarism of any form is a copyright infringement and undermines intellectual property rights inherent to every journalist and writer of any sort, seemingly becoming tense with the advancement in Information Technology.

Oringi Bonney, the Managing Director of the Association, promised to bring to book any further occurrences of plagiarism of the work of any of their members. “Any story published by Zombo Press Association and its members that another person will copy and paste and claim ownership will be dragged to the courts of law,” said Oringi.

Zombo Press Association was formed in the year 2022, and since then, it has grown to accommodate journalists from within the Alur districts of Zombo, Nebbi, and Pakwach with the objective of enlightening the community with the much-needed information.