BUDAPEST, Hungary — A committee charged with investigating allegations of plagiarism against Hungary’s president said the politician had written a doctoral dissertation that directly copied several pages from one publication and borrowed heavily from another one.
But the panel also noted that Pal Schmitt had identified these publications in the bibliography of his 1992 dissertation, and it did not use the word “plagiarism” in a three-page summary of its findings made public Tuesday. Instead, the panel shifted blame toward the University of Physical Education, saying it should have noticed and called attention to Schmitt’s “unusually extensive” copying.
The findings drew the ire of Hungary’s main opposition parties, who demanded that Schmitt resign as president. But the governing Fidesz party — which Schmitt once helped lead as its vice president and which backed his election in 2010 — said it now “considers the matter closed.”
Internet publication HVG.hu uncovered Schmitt’s copying in January and first raised the plagiarism issue. The five-member investigative committee at Budapest’s Semmelweis University, to which Schmitt’s alma mater now belongs, included four university professors and a lawyer. The lawyer, Akos Fluck, wrote a dissenting opinion, which also has not been made public.
The full 1,157-page report has not been released to the public. It was forwarded to Miklos Rethelyi, Hungary’s Minister of National Resources, who oversees educational matters and is expected to give his opinion on the subject. Schmitt’s thesis was titled “Analysis of the programs of the modern Olympic Games.”
The committee found that 17 pages of Schmitt’s thesis were a direct translation of a book by Klaus Heinemann published in 1991, while a further 180 pages of the 215-page thesis showed “partial similarity” to a 1987 work by Bulgarian sports official Nikolay Georgiev, a former member of the International Olympic Committee.
Several of the tables and diagrams in Schmitt’s thesis were also taken from Georgiev’s publication, some with slight alterations, the committee said.
It added that while the dissertation lacked footnotes, citations and quotation marks, had a haphazard biography and numerous other flaws, the proceedings which resulted in Schmitt’s doctorate complied with the university’s formal requirements of the time.
“The University of Physical Education made a professional error when it failed to uncover in time this sameness of texts and therefore the author of the paper may have believed that his dissertation meets expectations,” the committee said in its summary.
Schmitt, a former Olympic fencing champion and a member of the IOC since 1983, was elected in mid-2010 for a five-year term as president.
【新闻快讯】可能很多人还记得德国前国防部长古腾贝格去年因涉嫌论文抄袭而黯然辞职的事情。针对匈牙利总统的论文抄袭门事件，匈牙利泽梅尔魏斯大学于27日公布了对总统施米特?帕尔的博士论文是否抄袭的调查结果，指出部分内容确实与其他学者的文章相同。
泽梅尔魏斯大学在网站上公布了该校调查委员会的调查结果，指出在施米特1992年的博士论文中，第34页至50页与德国学者克劳斯?海涅曼的一篇文章相同，另有180页的内容与保加利亚体育专家尼古拉?格奥尔基耶夫的论文部分一致。
调查委员会说，施米特的论文有大量内容来自外文翻译，文中对引用内容没有标明，也没有做脚注和尾注。委员会已将调查报告提交国家资源部长。
不少匈牙利媒体都将施米特同古滕贝格相提并论，并暗示如果证明“抄袭”属实，施米特也应该向古腾贝格一样选择辞职。同时，匈牙利的主要反对党也都认为调查 报告对施密特论文事件轻描淡写，为施密特的抄袭进行掩饰，并要求施密特引咎辞职。甚至有反对党要以“伪造文件罪”追究施密特的刑事责任。
施密特总统年轻时是一名非常优秀的击剑运动员，曾经两次获得奥运会冠军。1989年至2010年任匈牙利奥委会主席，在此期间，他在1992年获得匈牙利体育大学博士学位。2010年6月，作为执政党青民盟 的总统候选人，施密特当选匈牙利总统。
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