GAllegations of plagiarism have been made against the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ), Alexandra Föderl-Schmid. The “Medieninsider” portal found eleven matches with texts that neither came from her nor from the SZ: “The fragments are very similar, sometimes even literally.”
The journalist writes primarily about Israel and Gaza. Among other things, it is said to have been copied from an Islamism dossier published in 2017 by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. If you look at the passages, there are indeed similarities. In an interview with the FAZ, Föderl-Schmid says, “This is not about the intellectual contributions of other authors, as is the case with essays, reports or commentaries. It's about factual descriptions and definitions. To describe the ideology of Hamas, I go back to the Hamas charter, for example, and give excerpts of it translated into German.” That's true.
Another accusation is: The SZ journalist quotes a former Israeli military advisor as saying that the tunnels under Gaza were built “so that Israeli troops could be ambushed in the event of a ground offensive.” This quote can be found identically in the “Welt” in 2021. Although the expert may have said the same thing about the SZ in 2023, it is noticeable that other quotes, indirect quotes and classifying sentences sound similar. In a short article, the journalist also copies from the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Föderl-Schmid says: “This is a lexicon context in which the focus is not on the claim to particular journalistic originality, but rather on the claim to explain a fact or a term as precisely and generally understandably as possible. In an effort to explain this Jewish holiday in very little space, I may have copied too much verbatim from one source. I regret this.”
Meanwhile, plagiarism expert Stefan Weber says the takeover is brutal, “something like this is incompatible with journalistic values.” He announced a comprehensive analysis of Föderl-Schmid's writings to the FAZ. She submitted her diploma thesis to the University of Salzburg in 1993 under the title “Journalism is in reality a male profession”. She received her doctorate in 1996 at the same location on the topic “From monopoly to market: ten years of the dual broadcasting system in Germany”. Weber also wants to check other SZ articles using software. Results would be available in a few weeks.
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