BDTV lashes out at CNBC Africa over Twitter copying

·24 Oct 2013

Business Day TV head Vernon Matzopoulos issued a press statement highlighting blatant copying of the publication’s mid-term policy speech coverage on Twitter by its rival CNBC Africa.

“Why bother to employ your own journalists when you can just steal the content from your rivals?” asked Matzopoulos.

Matzopoulos listed the original Twitter comments (tweets) generated by the Business Day TV newsroom, with the copied comments from the CNBC Africa account which appeared a few minutes later.

“As far as I know, publishing someone’s content as your own is plagiarism,” said Matzopoulos. “Or does the Twittersphere have a different set of rules?”

Twitter deja vu

CNBC Africa blamed the problem on a junior intern, promising strict disciplinary action against this staff member.

“CNBC Africa has a team of people managing the channel’s social media accounts. One of the members was a junior intern who made an error in judgment during the mid-term budget by copying and pasting three Business Day Television tweets,” CNBC Africa said.

“The channel does not condone plagiarism and extends an apology to Business Day Television. Strict disciplinary action will be taken against the staff member in question.”

Moneyweb plagiarism allegations against Fin24

This issue comes only weeks after Moneyweb launched an application in the Gauteng South High Court against Fin24 for alleged plagiarism, copyright infringement and unfair competition.

The Moneyweb application concerns a series of articles written by its journalists and contributors, which Moneyweb allege “Fin24 copied, either fully or partially, and published unlawfully”.

News24’s editor in chief, Jannie Momberg, rejected the claims by Moneyweb as “patently false”.

Momberg said that content was clearly attributed and linked to provide valuable exposure, transfer of audience, and strong benefits for search engine optimisation.