Accordingly, “no relevant academic misconduct” was identified, as the university announced on Thursday morning.
The work entitled “From Monopoly to Market, Ten Years of Dual Broadcasting System in Germany” was reviewed by the “Commission for Securing Good Scientific Practice” at the University of Salzburg at the request of Förderl-Schmid himself. Based on the report, the university “as the responsible authority has discontinued the proceedings regarding the annulment of the assessment of the dissertation in accordance with Section 73 of the University Act,” it is said.
Accusations of plagiarism
Förderl-Schmid was confronted with accusations of plagiarism from February onwards. These concerned, on the one hand, her handling of citing source material in journalistic texts and, on the other hand, her dissertation. As it turned out, the “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber – on behalf of the right-wing populist portal “Nius” – checked the work submitted to the University of Salzburg and, according to his own account, located “fragments of plagiarism”.
Following the allegations, Förderl-Schmid suspended her role as deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on February 5th and asked the University of Salzburg to examine her doctoral thesis for the relevant allegations. Shortly afterwards it became known that the former “Standard” editor-in-chief was missing. A day later, the 53-year-old Upper Austrian was found alive under an Inn bridge in Braunau and taken to hospital with severe hypothermia.
