The Press Council from Republic of Moldova would like to make an appeal to journalists and mass-media institutions with the request to observe copyrights and avoid plagiarism in their journalistic activity.

Several mass-media institutions informed the Press Council about cases of unauthorized taking-over of articles and news items from electronic editions of newspapers and press agencies, infringing thus copyrights. The Press Council calls on all journalists and mass-media institutions to observe the provisions of the Law on copyright and related rights, as well as provisions of Codes of Ethics for journalists. We would like to recall the fact that the Law on copyright clearly defines „the author holds the exclusive copyright over his/her work, it resulting from the work’s creation by him/her”. R. Moldova’s Code of professional ethical principles of the journalist stipulates that plagiarism is inadmissible, and „the journalist shall make references to the author’s name every time he/she makes use of the author’s work, that is a work of his/her colleague, in a way or another”. At the same time, the Guidelines on style containing ethical norms recommends to the journalists not to record, multiply or distribute certain materials, unless „an agreement (oral or written) exists with the materials’ author as regards related rights”. In the same order of ideas, the Press Council forbids print or electronic mass-media to take over photographic materials without the consent and reference to the source and/or author.   

The Press Council recommends the modality employed by several European Union members regarding the free-of-charge taking-over of materials, consisting of borrowing utmost 500 characters, without exceeding half of the article or news item. In such cases, it is compulsory to quote the source and author of information, and present the direct link to the source. The integral taking-over of articles or news items can be done only basing on an agreement concluded with owner of the copyright.