Plagiarism All Over

Update: I emailed the author of the article and he told me that Walid Saffour, the director of the Syrian Human Rights Committee, had told him by phone the words were taken from by post, and the author believes it is not plagiarism if Saffour hold "similar" views and it is not his problem. Well Saffour did not even bother to rephrase my words, he copied them exactly, so i wonder how "similar" an "exact copy" could be.

I mean wow I am really honored that the human rights committee had nothing to say but the exact damn words of mine on an interview, and I am really fine with the response of Najad, cause let's be "practical" about it: since when "all rights are reserved" in the Arab World?

After the post I wrote couple weeks ago on Facebook, a lot of desperate so called journalists/reporters and bloggers who have no idea what Facebook in Syria is and have no idea what censorship in Syria is, actually had the nerve to steal my thoughts and my argument even though it isn’t that much really except that it provided background, it opposes the Syrian government, and that it is written in English.

So my post was not just "there" to be a source on the censorship case of Facebook, but also a case to use it politically against the government, a matter I am finding hard to deal with lately: how I can oppose injustice without being used by pathetic people out there who just need a "word from the street" to use against "Syria"? I am really having a trouble dealing with that and frankly that's one reason I haven’t been blogging about censorship lately. I want to be clear for these readers who don’t know my political stand: whereas I "oppose" Syria's internal policy and I "question" the regime's motives to support Hezbolla and Hamas, I SUPPORT Hezbolla and Hamas' right to resist occupation! So don’t count on me so much on backing up your lousy game against the "axis of evil" Syria.

So let's look at some of those journalists:

First we have that Joshua, oh boy he's something, I mean I don’t take him seriously whatever he writes but I cannot really comprehend that fact that he's trying to write, oh no excuse me, to "analyze" Syria's international and domestic affairs when he cannot write a bloody post on Facebook!

After introducing us in couple lines to his topic of discussion on the 22nd. of the current month, this is his first paragraph:

"Facebook has become a virtual civil-society in Syria. Many civic groups sprung up over-night and became popular with thousands. Groups about preserving the old city, getting back the Golan Heights, supporting civil marriage, women's' groups, art associations, and you-name-it."

Does it ring a bell? on the 19th. my approach onto reading censoring Facebook was "merely" about the rising of civil society and activists and I have mentioned these exact group along with the two causes Free Golan and Saving Old Damascus:

FREE ANWAR BUNNI

Freedom for Michel Kilo

Syrian Gays Rights

لا .. لحجب مواقع الانترنت في سوريا

For Civil Marriage in Syria

Of course plagiarizers do not copy rightly cause they're not the owners of the "idea" but simply its imitators: he mixed up groups for causes and he wrongly reported that these groups are popular with thousands.

He continues with his two-paragraphs' report:

"They are only limited by the imaginations of hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have been kept from forming such groups in non-virtual life."

Wait, doesn’t this look like this:

"Those who cannot be activists in a "real" Syria can be one in a virtual Syria."

Or maybe this is all a coincident.

Our next guy is actually a guy who has interviewed me but his unprofessionality caused to put my words under another person:

"There are no independent institutions in Syria – whether social, cultural or political," says Saffour.
"Syrians are now trying to represent themselves - and they were doing that through Facebook. Those who cannot be activists in the 'real' Syria, can be one in a virtual Syria."

This was actually taken from my post:

"There are no cultural institutions in Syria, no private independent NGOs, no civic institutions, who represent the populations except the government? Syrian Facebookers are trying now to represent themselves. Those who cannot be activists in a "real" Syria can be one in a virtual Syria."

I don’t understand this, these very people who supposed to represent the "voiceless" people who are already misrepresented by their local media and trying to reach out a "professional" and an independent media are either plagiarizers or lazy journalists? I love Al Jazeera and it will take a lot more that a lazy journalist to make me dislike her, but this is not how I like her to be.

Damn it, it was just a post!