KARACHI: An Indian news website, The Print has been notified by economic and business journalist of a leading daily of Pakistan for having lifted his story he produced for his newspaper without prior permission or proper accreditation.
Business journalist Khurram Husain, who is associated with the leading daily Dawn, condemned the news website in his tweet saying the story is a violation of copyright and called the practice as unethical.
My Dawn article has been reproduced by The Print WITHOUT permission.
— Khurram Husain (@KhurramHusain) March 29, 2020
This is unethical. https://t.co/UAlRMoYqQ9
However, the news website has responded by saying:
They have prior permission from his publication in written form and that they uphold ethical and fair practices in journalism.
We took due permission from Dawn via email on 27 March for republishing this article written by you. We have a record of the email exchange. At ThePrint, we believe in ethical & fair journalism and keep that as our core. Thank you
— ThePrint (@ThePrintIndia) March 30, 2020
Illegal and unethical lifting of news material by news aggregators and websites is a growing concern among authors of news related content. Journalists are increasingly notifying plagiarists of violating copyrights and intellectual property rights in their frequent sharing of credited information without proper references. However, in the absence of proper laws to address this issue, the practice continues to thrive.
A news website must make sure to reproduce the content to the permitted extent and linking such material to original link to abide by copyright laws.
