Bernama report on EIU lifted from pro-BN website

A recent report on the possible election outcome by national news agency Bernama appears to have been plagiarised from another online news portal that published a almost identical article about two weeks earlier.

Checks byMalaysiakini showed that the Bernamaarticle dated Feb 21 is almost a carbon copy of an article published on Feb 9 by the pro-BN website, The Choice(right).

The Bernama version of the story was widely reproduced by the mainstream and online media, includingMalaysiakini, which was later alerted to the similarities with the article in The Choice by a reader.

Both articles quote the think-tank Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as saying that BN is the likely winner in the coming general election.

A close scrutiny of both articles reveals that Bernama added three paragraphs to the version posted by The Choice.

There are also at least three sentences that were shifted about, while the rest were minor changes, such as changing the term ‘GE13' to ‘the polls'.

Both articles have also wrongly attributed parts of BN's criticism of Pakatan Rakyat to the think tank.

Malaysiakini contacted both EIU and The Choice, which is operated by a group of anonymous writers, for comment yesterday but has yet to receive their responses.

Bernama to probe complaint

Meanwhile, Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong vowed to look into the matter and provide a response to queries from Malaysiakini.

The national news agency had previously been accused of doctoring photos on two separate occasions over the past year, both to purportedly give the appearance of larger crowd sizes at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's functions.

Yong (right) denied the first allegation on Sept 5 last year, but on Sept 20conceded that the second allegation was true.

Decrying the second incident as sabotage, he said at the time, "We are viewing this matter seriously and will not hesitate to take appropriate action against those responsible for the irregularities.

"Bernama always strives to maintain high standards of professionalism and takes a serious view of workplace integrity."