No more Bristow-Bovey for SA
2003-09-18 11:12
Cape Town - In yet another episode of Darrel Bristow-Bovey's 'Bad Writing' turn of events, two newspapers have cut their relations with the award-winning columnist and author.
Bristow-Bovey, who wrote for a number of publications (including Business Day and Cape Times), allegedly resigned from the two papers on Wednesday.
His resignation comes as no suprise to most as he has been under pressure - largely from journalists - for plagiarism.
According to reports, there are fresh allegations of lifting material from a published work without crediting the source.
In an article on the Business Day, the paper's editor explains that Bristow-Bovey's resignation was enhanced by the need for journalists to be "rigourous about crediting the ideas and text they use".
New claims to hit Bristow-Bovey say that the journalist lifted material for his Cape Times column, from British TV personality Jeremy Paxman's book The English.
Business Day's editor, Peter Bruce, says that while it was "sad" to lose Bristow-Bovey "the discovery this week of stark similarities between a column Darrel wrote for the Cape Times in May and a passage in a book... calls into question the care Darrel applies to some of his work".
This new turn of events follows Bristow-Bovey's letter last week, publised in the Business Day, in which he apologised for his "mistake".
In the letter Bristow-Bovey had indicated that after the initial allegations of plagiarising well-known author Bill Bryson's work, he had suffered emotionally.
He's now said, quoted in Cape Times, that while he doesn't consider himself a plagiarist "circumstances have meant it's impossible for me to continue writing columns in South Africa".
- News24