CNN fires editor accused of extensive plagiarism

By Tim Molloy
TheWrap

CNN says it has fired an editor after finding examples of plagiarism in about 50 of her stories.

The company said it had terminated Marie-Louise Gumuchian, who reported from CNN's London bureau about Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, in an editor's note published Friday.

It said it had removed plagiarized passages from some articles, and deleted some altogether.

Here's the note:

(CNN) — CNN has discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN news editor. She wrote frequently about international news, writing and reporting about Africa, Europe, and the Middle East from our London bureau.

An unpublished story flagged last week during our editing process led to an internal investigation that uncovered other examples in about 50 published stories, and our investigation is ongoing.

We've terminated Gumuchian's employment with CNN, and have removed the instances of plagiarism found in her pieces. In some cases, we've chosen to delete an entire article.

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.

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

- Meredith Artley, Managing Editor and VP, CNN Digital
- Manuel Perez, Editorial Director, CNN Digital
- Richard T. Griffiths, Senior Editorial Director and VP, CNN