Earlier this year, we found an article on ST bed layout copied almost completely, (with some names changed) in an edition of City Plus, Dainik Jagran’s local freesheeter. The article byline was Joel Deepak. Our article written by Samuel Jacob, and published last year is here. We had been copy-pasted!

We sent a stern note to the editor, Sapna Khanna. She replied with an apology saying that the freelance writer no longer worked for them, and that they would issue a correction in their next issue.

We’re quite aware that in media, everyone watches everyone else. It comes with the territory and it’s a good thing. As long as it stops with watching, that is.

At Citizen Matters, we are particular about the quality of our articles and we value our writers’ work; If any media house wants to republish our article, we are happy to work with you. Our reprint/republication policy is here.

Recently, we have been coming across many sites, especially non-commercial blog sites that have displayed complete articles from Citizen Matters. Most of them do not even credit us as the source. Our request to all such bloggers – please don’t, you are doing a great disservice to the quality and diversity of online media.

This is what we recommend: Display a para or two from the article, thrown in a link to us, and write your own commentary and thoughts around it for your audience to read and react. Several bloggers are already doing this on CM’s articles.

Being a very small startup team, we don’t have the bandwidth to monitor whenever we are copied. You, our readers can help – let us know when you see something that looks like it has been taken from our publication without due credit. ⊕