CAIRO: A satirist renowned for attacking what he calls unprofessionalism in Egypt’s media has been pilloried on Twitter for plagiarism after he admitted not crediting analysis in his weekly column.
Bassem Youssef tweeted an apology hours after his column appeared in Tuesday’s independent daily Al Shourouk.
But this still did not prevent a barrage of accusations of hypocrisy and claims that he owned up only after being caught.
The ex-heart surgeon rose to prominence with his weekly television show Al Bernameg (The Programme), poking fun at Islamist president Mohamed Mursi and his supporters during Mursi’s turbulent year in office.
“Bassem teaches us every week that the media should be clean and trusted, LOL” (laugh out loud), one Twitter user calling himself ProfO wrote.
He blamed his workload for not making clear he had lifted large sections of his column from a piece published on US website politico.com by Moscow-based journalist Ben Judah.
“I bear responsibility for not adding the sources at the end, it was added later, I deeply apologise,” he tweeted. In a separate apology on Al Shourouk’s website, Youssef said: “Tuesday is the most difficult day of the week for Al Bernameg’s crew, as it is when we finish writing the episode and the preparation of the guests.”
AFP
