CNN fires editor, cites plagiarism

"CNN has discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN news editor," said a statement posted on the news channel's website. PHOTO: facebook.com/cnn

WASHINGTON: CNN said Friday it fired a London-based news editor, citing dozens of instances of plagiarism in her coverage.

“CNN has discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN news editor,” said a statement posted on the news channel’s website. “She wrote frequently about international news, writing and reporting about Africa, Europe, and the Middle East from our London bureau.”

CNN said it discovered a problem with an unpublished story last week during the editing process “which led to an internal investigation that uncovered other examples in about 50 published stories, and our investigation is ongoing.”

The statement said CNN terminated Gumuchian’s employment and removed some portions or entire articles she had written.

“Trust, integrity and simply giving credit where it’s due are among the tenets of journalism we hold dear, and we regret that we published material that did not reflect those essential standards,” the statement said.

“We also believe in letting audiences know when we’ve remedied situations that threaten to compromise that trust.”