Will the editor steal my story idea? Contributors speak out their fears

Leslie Kipkemboi has a proposal for a television show he wants to pitch to NTV. He thinks it will be a smash hit for young viewers but he is afraid his idea will be stolen. “I can’t reveal the (details of the) program because I’m afraid it will be stolen,” he says.

Every so often I receive a message from a would-be contributor who fears his idea will be stolen or claims that an article he sent to the editor has been modified and published under the name of another writer.

Do editors steal ideas and stories? Do writers really have to worry about editors stealing their work? How common is theft of intellectual property in journalism?

It all depends on the organisation. Most media organisations are honest and their editors do not steal. Their success depends on building and maintaining solid relationships with their contributors.

Most editors are ethical and while some steal ideas, this talk of editors stealing ideas is more often imagined than real. If you suspect your idea was stolen, stop and take a deep breath. There is probably another explanation. You are not the only person who could have thought of the idea.

Complaints Commission

The editor may have already assigned a story on the same idea. Many story ideas are similar, and you can’t always assume your idea has been stolen merely because the topic looks similar to yours.

Someone else could easily have thought of the same idea and written about it. I know of only one documented, and tried, case of idea-stealing and I would like to conclude this piece with the moral of the story.

The case was brought before the Complaints Commission of the Media Council of Kenya. The particulars of the case are that on June 10, 2011, Mediavision production manager Joseph Mucheru approached Mediamax K24 TV to interest them in a show called Living.

Mr Mucheru presented a pilot programme and synopsis of the show to K24’s production manager Julius Njogu, who proposed a co-production partnership.

He asked Mr Mucheru to prepare a draft agreement. The agreement, however, was not executed as Mr Njogu became unavailable. But, lo and behold, some three weeks later K24 started airing a similar program, Property Weekly.

In the Commission hearing, K24 denied there was ever any agreement between Mediavision and K24 or that Mr Njogu had been given “any pilot program, trailer or synopsis” by Mr Mucheru. K24 maintained Property Weekly was “distinct, different and wholly produced and owned by K24 TV”.

Copyright law

The Commission was convinced Property Weekly had a strong resemblance to the pilot show made available by Mr Mucheru, but it was unable to make a finding of infringement of copyright as ideas are not copyrightable. “One can therefore take someone else’s idea for a program, put his own spin on it with his own characters without violating the copyright law, it said in a ruling on July 3, 2012.

The Commission, however, said Mediavision had invested in producing a prototype and pitched it to Mediamax. Stealing the idea, therefore, “goes against the international practice in the profession where it is considered unethical and unprofessional to steal ideas from contributors and freelancer journalists,” the Commission said.

“Worldwide, when a media organisation prefers to use a story idea offered by a contributor or free-lance journalist to produce its own story, it is common practice to pay for the idea. Stealing story ideas is considered unethical and unprofessional.”

The Commission fined Mediamax Sh200,000 for “failing to observe professional and ethical standards.” And therein lies the moral of the case.

The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.