From press release to newspaper article

I read a press release on a tragic story earlier today from the Saanich police on a sexual assault that happened this week-end. A few hours later I came across the Times-Colonist story on the same tragedy as well as the Victoria News article and they all seemed to say the same thing, so I decided to search Google news for the story, and see who else is reporting on it and compare how each article differed from the press release.

It is interesting how little has been changed when you review the them side by side. It makes me wonder, how much editing is required for one to get credit for essentially copying a press release and claiming an article as their own, or at what point would such constitute journalistic plagiarism? Hopefully some of my media friends jump in, as I'm sure this issue is not new to them as it is to me.

I don't mind using this tragic story as a case study, as the more people that are aware of it, the odds increase of finding her attackers.