Johann Hari Apologizes For Plagiarism, Takes Leave From Independent

After being accused of repeated acts of plagiarism and stripped of a major prize, columnist Johann Hari apologized for his journalistic misconduct in a column on Wednesday.

Hari was a top columnist at the Independent (and a frequent blogger for The Huffington Post) when, in July, he was suddenly charged with having lifted large chunks of material from Afghan activist Malalai Joya's book and passed them off as portions of his interview with Joya. Hari denied having plagiarized, but admitted he had made mistakes. He was then suspended by the Independent while the paper did an internal review of his work.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Independent said that Hari "admits the central accusations made against him."

In his Wednesday column, Hari chalked his missteps up to wanting to give the clearest representation of his interviewees' thoughts. He explained, "When I recorded and typed up any conversation, I found something odd: points that sounded perfectly clear when you heard them being spoken often don’t translate to the page."

He blamed sheer ignorance, writing that he didn't know how wrong he was and that he should have asked his experienced colleagues to explain his errors.

Hari also confessed to writing slanderous Wikipedia entries about colleagues who had criticized him. Observer columist Nick Cohen and former New Statesman deputy editor Cristina Odone had voiced suspicions that Hari had edited their Wikipedia pages. On Wednesday, he admitted, "I called one of them anti-Semitic and homophobic, and the other a drunk. I am mortified to have done this, because it breaches the most basic ethical rule: don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you."

Hari announced that he will be taking a leave of absence from the Independent until 2012, during which time, he said, he would "undertake a program of journalism training." He has also returned the George Orwell Prize, which he was awarded in 2008, and will post footnotes for all of his articles online.

Comments

[sas]

01:17 PM on 09/17/2011

Johann Hari is a serial slanderer, a disgrace and an embarassment to the journalistic profession. His diatribe against Dubai represented yellow journalism at its very worse. I for one am glad this hack has been exposed for what he is.

[jwcmass]

04:13 AM on 10/29/2011

I believe in an old saying, "Let the one without sin cast the first stone." -- I am not defending Hari's actions, but in the article above there is no mention of "serial slandering" -- only two names are mentioned. I would also add that no one had forced you in the past, nor will force you in the future to ever read his articles and comment on them. You do that of your own free will.

[2ManyQuestions]

08:27 PM on 09/16/2011

I don't think he had ill will doing what he did per se. However it was still wrong.
Johann's mistake here was assuming that people's views don't evolve. So, aiming for clarity, he tried to read his interviewee's thoughts. In the end, that was his interpretation that he presented as a fact. He could have simply followed his interview with an opinion piece seeking to explicitly interpret the interview.

Now the slanderous wiki issue on the other hand is just petty and childish.

[xhawk2]

07:19 PM on 09/16/2011

Maybe Reuters, CBS, or the New York Times can hire him.

[Johnd139]

06:32 PM on 09/16/2011

One wonders how many others are sweating just a bit?

[Bgrngod]

02:09 PM on 09/16/2011

Well, I suppose he deserves props for what appears to be owning up to it.

[ESerafina42]

09:06 PM on 09/15/2011

The guy was a "top columnist" at the paper and yet was ignorant of the most basic rules of journalistic ethics? He should have asked "more experienced" people? Sorry - don't buy it.

[jwcmass]

04:19 AM on 10/29/2011

He is hardly the first journalist or author who has plagiarized another's work, or gotten into duels with other authors. Is it serious? -- Of course. But it doesn't come close to bugging people's cell phones and eavesdropping on conversations that are private, particularly of families who are going through very difficult times. Funny how that has all seemed to die down, and we have heard so little since that scandal first broke. Those actions were violations of the law -- not just of journalistic ethics. And as long as we are not "buying explanations" -- do you REALLY believe that Rupert Murdoch, not exactly a "hands-off" manager had NO knowledge of this? But he seems to have managed to come out of it squeaky clean.

[xhawk2]

12:47 PM on 09/15/2011

And yet the stone-throwing liberals accuse Fox of lying. You know what they say about those who worry about the specks in other people's eyes.

[sophiajim]

03:21 PM on 09/15/2011

And no liberal has changed their mind about Fox. Facts are their or isthat every where

[wonderYrednow]

07:16 AM on 09/16/2011

Flame Spews, you glisten.

[BillM754]

12:32 PM on 09/15/2011

Typical Liberal journalist. He will be back to work in a month.

[ESerafina42]

09:07 PM on 09/15/2011

I doubt it. But if he worked at Fox he would have gotten a raise and a promotion.

[oldstudent10]

02:35 PM on 09/16/2011

Only at the Globe and NYX

[BillM754]

09:55 AM on 09/18/2011

OK. You started it. Give me an example. You should think before you write something like this. Do you think you wont get called on a statement like this? So prove your statement.

[oldstudent10]

02:36 PM on 09/16/2011

Should apply for team Obama, they need someone to plagiarize speeches...

[ThinkCreeps]

09:59 AM on 09/15/2011

I don't know why's he's going back to school for four months. Nothing else he ever writes will have any credibility.

Maybe he should try writing fiction formally.

[jwcmass]

04:32 AM on 10/29/2011

There are much higher profiled authors than Hari who have made this mistake and who have managed to survive. Doris Kearns Goodwin comes to mind. But my crystal ball is not working so well, so I will refrain from making predictions as to the future.

[ThinkCreeps]

05:36 AM on 10/29/2011

She was more honest - she came clean, and was never really a front-line journalist. Her plagiarism was in a book, and the text she lifted was also published. Making up quotes from fictional sources in the field is much more serious. Hari's finished.

[RubenNYC]

08:39 AM on 09/15/2011

Ah, too bad. I was a regular reader of his work.

[Spilford1]

08:48 AM on 09/15/2011

How do you know?

[garylinn]

09:14 AM on 09/15/2011

Or somebody else's work

[Dr Confuso]

08:21 AM on 09/15/2011

I apologize, but let me throw a few rationalizations at you to mitigate my misdeeds. He stole, he got caught...end of story. That wasn't an apology. And as for 'taking leave from the Independent'... did he or didn;t he get fired? He makes it sound as if it is such a gallant move on his part. What self serving rubbish.

[Lindsey Gregory]

09:55 AM on 09/15/2011

You're right. It seems like the Independent is putting him in a time out until this whole thing blows over and everyone forgets about it.

[fredpa]

07:00 AM on 09/15/2011

I think at least a leave of absence is in order.

[20thCentury Man]

06:12 AM on 09/15/2011

His explanations do not help him.

[jjtm562]

05:58 AM on 09/15/2011

Hari who?

[cbaker2692]

05:36 AM on 09/15/2011

Partner your not Motified, Sorry, Scared Shitless or anything else. You got caught lost yor job and all professional respect and now your going to play the"I'm sorry" game. Don't think anybody going to but it

[ESerafina42]

09:08 PM on 09/15/2011

He IS sorry - sorry he got caught.