Monday 30 November 2009

Credit agencies where credit is due


Agency journalists are used to seeing their stories appearing under other reporters' by-lines in the national press even if their copy has been unchanged.
They will welcome the view of Guardian readers' editor Siobhain Butterworth, who writes in her Open Door column today that the paper's journalists should follow its editorial code on attributing stories.
She says: "The editorial code seems workable and fair, and I see no reason to depart from it. A story that includes material from another publication should say so. If it contains a significant amount of agency copy, the journalist's name should be followed by "and agencies". Slightly rewritten wire copy should say "staff and agencies". Only if the story is nearly all the journalist's own work should he or she take credit."
Butterworth says she became aware that the Sport site of the Guardian "routinely publishes stories without attribution" when mistakes in stories needed to be corrected.

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