Paraphrasing without attribution is plagiarism
Clarifying how certain journalists and commentators have misrepresented or built upon the Twitter Files France.
The report on the Twitter Files France, published by Civilization Works, is freely available in both English and French. Given its public interest, it’s essential that anyone who wishes to read it can do so.
However, when commentators whose profession is to comment and journalists whose profession is to inform use our work, they have a professional and ethical obligation to cite the authors. Paraphrasing someone else’s work without crediting the authors constitutes plagiarism, an offense punishable as counterfeiting under the French criminal code.
While we are not litigious, we are uncompromising when it comes to matters of ethics.
The vast majority of those who have shared or built upon our work have given us proper credit, and it’s important to acknowledge this.
On Tuesday, September 9, André Bercoff invited Idriss Aberkane to Sud Radio - and French national radio network - to discuss the Twitter Files France. Remarkably, in this 45-minute segment, he failed to mention the authors of the investigation, namely Thomas Fazi, Pascal Clérotte, Alexandra Guttentag and Michael Shellenberger.
Moreover, during the broadcast—which we invite you to find online—our report was credited with numerous claims that do not appear in it but were instead the result of conjectures, speculations, and opinions by Mr. Bercoff and Mr. Aberkane, and presented as facts. This constitutes misinformation.
For example, it was stated on Mr. Bercoff’s show that Jack Dorsey refused to respond to a request from Emmanuel Macron to send him an text message. We have not reported this, as clearly stated in the report on page 9.
The rest of the broadcast follows suit, riddled with falsehoods and fanciful claims. It raises the question of whether André Bercoff even read the report to prepare for his program and whether he is capable of hosting a show while challenging a guest who is clearly veering off course.
The Twitter Files France is a serious matter, arguably one of the biggest scoops of the year. The nature and gravity of the revelations—organized attacks on freedom of expression spanning over more than a decade, indications of involvement at the highest levels of the state, and the potential diplomatic consequences—prohibits distorting the facts, spreading hasty interpretations, making baseless accusations, or promoting dubious theories. Such matters cannot be discussed lightly. One must stick to the facts.
In our report, the facts we present and the analysis we provide are clearly distinguished and identifiable to the reader, in accordance with the Munich Charter. The same applies to Michael Shellenberger’s X thread, which includes published documents, most of which we redacted to avoid harming innocent parties.
Pascal Clérotte has requested a right of reply from Patrick Roger, the managing director of Sud Radio.