TEXT OF FRENCH LAW WAS COPIED FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Times (London)
April 2, 2015 Thursday
by Charles Bremner
A French MP has admitted that she tabled a parliamentary bill with a
preamble largely pasted from Wikipedia. Valerie Boyer, 52, copied text
from the free internet encyclopedia setting out reasons why France
should officially recognise the 1915 Assyrian genocide. Wikipedia
describes it as “the mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the
Ottoman Empire during the First World War” and blames it on the Turks.
The text, published in the official parliamentary journal, retained
Wikipedia’s index numbers and hyperlinks, although these were later
removed.
Ms Boyer, the Union for a Popular Movement MP for Marseilles,
acknowledged using copied text but insisted on BFM TV, a news channel,
that she “had the extract verified by specialised teachers”.
She was the author of a 2011 bill making denial of the Armenian
genocide by Turkey a criminal offence. The Assyrian massacres were
bound up with the genocide. Turkey denies responsibility.
The new bill is to be debated later this year. Discovery of the
plagiarism was mocked on social networks under the hashtag #epicfail.
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