“Never plagiarize.”

This directive, nestled in the heart of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics, is unique among its counterparts. Unlike the code’s many other tenets, which often leave room for exception, “never plagiarize” is unequivocal and inarguable. There are no situations in which plagiarism is acceptable for a journalist.

That is why the Criterion editorial staff was shocked and dismayed to learn that the former online editor had been plagiarizing material for her columns since she began working at the publication. Such repeated misconduct led to the termination of her employment.

Since then, the editorial staff has taken several actions to set things right.

First, all of the content that the online editor produced for the publication has been removed from www.thecrite.com. We believe it was prudent to remove the offending works to prevent continued intellectual theft from the plagiarized publications. We also removed works that did not apparently contain any plagiarism as a safeguard because they may contain plagiarized material that has so far evaded our investigation.

Next, we chose to publicize the incident as soon as possible. The story, “Criterion online editor fired for plagiarism,” which contains all relevant information, can be read on page three of this week’s edition or online at thecrite.com.

Because the SPJ code of ethics instructs journalists to “abide by the same high standards to which they hold others,” we strove to handle the internal investigation and reporting the same way we would handle a similar matter externally.

We decided that to avoid perceived conflicts of interest, editors involved with the decision to fire the online editor or with the initial discovery of her plagiarism did not write the story.

Readers may notice that we did not publish the name of the former online editor. This decision was not made to protect her identity or shield her from criticism. Rather, we acknowledge that the Criterion, which is primarily a news organization, also fulfills a secondary function as an educational environment.

In an age when many employers research applicants’ names via Internet searches during the hiring process, we felt that forever attaching her name to an electronic record of her transgressions was too harsh a punishment for an apprentice journalist.

Since we first broke the news of this incident, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has decided to publish the name of the former online editor. Although we understand the ethical considerations that drove the Sentinel to do so, the nature of our publication compelled us to make a different choice.

The editorial staff of the Criterion would also like to apologize to both its readers and the plagiarized publications and writers.

Despite this incident, we will continue to educate, entertain and inform the Colorado Mesa University community.