A recent report on the possible election outcome by national news agency Bernama appears to have been plagiarised from another online news portal that published an almost identical article about two weeks earlier.

EIU report Checks by Malaysiakini showed that the Bernama article dated Feb 21 is almost a carbon copy of an article published on Feb 9 by the pro-BN website, The Choice ( right ).

The Bernama version of the story was widely reproduced by the mainstream and online media, including Malaysiakini , which was later alerted to the similarities with the article in The Choice by a reader.

Both articles quote the think-tank Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) as saying that BN is the likely winner in the coming general election.

A close scrutiny of both articles reveals that Bernama added three paragraphs to the version posted by The Choice .

There are also at least three sentences that were shifted about, while the rest were minor changes, such as changing the term ‘GE13' to ‘the polls'.

Both articles have also wrongly attributed parts of BN's criticism of Pakatan Rakyat to the think tank.

Malaysiakini has contacted both EIU and The Choice , which is operated by a group of anonymous writers, for comment yesterday but has yet to receive their responses.

Bernama to probe complaint

Meanwhile, Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong vowed to look into the matter when informed of the matter by Malaysiakini .

In a statement late today, the national news agency conceded that it had "sourced" the information from The Choice .

"What was mentioned by EIU was cited in the Bernama report except for the fact that Bernama had sourced from a website which reported on the same matter.

" Bernama regrets that the writer had mistakenly quoted from a third party website but the sole intention was to report on the forecast made by EIU."

NONE The national news agency had previously been accused of doctoring photos on two separate occasions over the past year, both to purportedly give the appearance of larger crowd sizes at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's functions.

Yong ( right ) denied the first allegation on Sept 5 last year, but on Sept 20 conceded that the second allegation was true.

Decrying the second incident as sabotage, he said at the time, "We are viewing this matter seriously and will not hesitate to take appropriate action against those responsible for the irregularities.

" Bernama always strives to maintain high standards of professionalism and takes a serious view of workplace integrity."

Spin notwithstanding, a wake-up call for Pakatan

The Economist Intelligence Report on Malaysia