University plagiarised Jacques Chirac's speech
The Francophone Free University of Brussels, the ULB, has sacked the speechwriter who wrote the address given by the president of the ULB board when he opened the new university year last month. It has emerged that several passages of the speech were lifted straight out of a speech delivered by nobody less than Jacques Chirac, the former French president.
The unprecedented plagiarism in Alain Delchambre's speech only came to light several days later.
A spokesman for the board president conceded that Alain Delchambre didn't write the entire speech himself: "He has gathered a team around him and in that team there's one person who's responsible for drafting his speeches. The president wasn't at all aware that others provided inspiration for his speech. He immediately sacked his aide when he learnt the serious nature of the matter."