Open Letter: On plagiarism, misquoting & things of that nature.

A few days ago I became aware of a situation involving an article that I originally wrote and posted on my website www.isthisafrica.com on December 4, 2012. Those who know me, follow me on Twitter etc have probably come across me ranting about Journalism in Zimbabwe many times. From the lack of basic fact checking, copying and pasting to ridiculous headlines etc. there is so much to rant about but I will not go into that today. I will just leave this excerpt here.

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These are my issues:

1. You did not ask me if you could use the article. While I appreciate that you liked the article, you should have asked first in order to avoid all of this.
2. You did not simply copy and paste, you edited it. Additional quotes and sentences about yourself and other things.
3. When I spoke to you and blamed another blog for plagiarizing my article, you did not mention that you were the one who sent it to them in the first place.
4. You had Southern Eye publish and credit me with an article that you took and edited. I don't want words that I did not write attributed to me. I have already spoken to an Editor there and received an apology about that.

Let me explain a little more in case it is not clear why these are issues for me. We may not be dealing with money or publications in the New York Times but it is about principle and integrity. To produce that feature, I interviewed [the Managing Editor of Deck] for over an hour to learn about Deck. After leaving Bulawayo, I listened to that interview again, transcribed it and clarified anything I was unclear on because I wanted to make sure that my feature accurately portrayed what Deck is trying to do.

I do not get paid for what I do but I take it seriously because I enjoy it and I want to become better at it. The research, finding correct sources, checking and double checking facts before publishing are things I do because I want to be taken seriously. My name, isthisAFRICA' s name and reputation are important to me and I guard them very carefully by choosing what I publish and making sure that it is done in the most accurate and honest way possible. In the future, afford me the respect of contacting me if you would like to use something I wrote and NEVER submitting anything of mine (that you have edited or not) to third-party publications. What irritates me the most is that you put my name on something that had been edited without my consent or knowledge. You essentially put words into my mouth and misled people which is not only disrespectful but also very unprofessional. As someone who is working and building a name for yourself in the media industry, you know better than that.