Journalist claims victory in plagiarism verdict
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A veteran journalist on the mainland won a copyright infringement lawsuit against a Hong Kong book publisher he accused of distorting and plagiarizing his articles.
In a November ruling, the District Court in Hong Kong agreed that one chapter of a book published by Ha Fai Yi Publication Limited plagiarized the work of Wang Guangxiang.
The court ordered the book publisher to provide a public apology to Wang, pay him $18,679 in damages, stop violating copyright rules and destroy existing plagiarized works, the judgment said.
"Behavior of our company is an infringement to Wang's copyright," the publisher said in its apology. "It has caused considerable harm to his reputation and career."
The publisher plagiarized three of Wang's 1998 investigative reports into financial crimes in Jiangsu Province. The reports were edited and used in one chapter under a pseudonym that was published in Financial Crimes of Senior Chinese Communist Party Officials.
Aside from changing the title and distorting facts, the edited article also reportedly drew some conclusions and included comments that were considered slanderous to the image of the mainland, the Legal Daily reported, adding that the chapter failed to mention how the government cracked down on violations.
The book, which was published in Hong Kong and overseas, used photographs taken by Wang without permission, the paper said.
"It's for the dignity of me and all the media on the mainland," Wang told the Global Times Sunday. Wang, 57, a senior journalist with Nantong Daily, was earlier nominated for the top journalism prize in China — the Fan Changjiang News Award.
He accidentally discovered his reports were plagiarized in 2004 when he flipped through the book in Singapore. "All the names, locations and dates were exactly the same in the stories that I reported," Wang said. Wang demanded that the publisher "issue an open letter stating the source of the article and declare his non-involvement in the case."
After the publisher rejected his request, Wang decided to take legal steps.
He filed the lawsuit in 2006, after which the company attempted to settle the case by offering Wang US$3,000 but did not want to destroy the books or to apologize.
"There are still many reports and articles by journalists from the mainland that are being dis-torted and used as sources for some political publications," Wang said. "The journalists and writers should consult corresponding copyright laws and use the legal weapons to protect their rights when violated."
Wang said that he went back to Hong Kong last December and witnessed the destruction of 1,003 copies of the book that plagiarized his works.
