Shamed journalist Johann Hari, who admitted to plagiarism and other wrongdoing, will return to his job at the Independent after “journalism training”.
Hari who has been suspended from his job since July admitted in a mea culpa, published in the Independent, that he had been guilty of "two wrong and stupid things".
This included lifting quotes from other writers' copy and passing them off as quotes from his own interviews of said writers, and and using a fake name to attack detractors on Wikipedia.
"I took out nasty passages about people I admire – like Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot, Deborah Orr and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown … but in a few instances, I edited the entries of people I had clashed with in ways that were juvenile or malicious: I called one of them antisemitic and homophobic, and the other a drunk," the award winning journalist admitted.
"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. I apologise to the latter group unreservedly and totally."
Hari also returned the Orwell Prize for journalism from 2008 but stands by the work which won him the award.
The journalist was rumbled when readers discovered he’d lifted quotes from a piece written by journalist Ann Leslie and inserted them into his own copy, passing them off as quotes he had elicited from her in an interview.
Hari will now undertake a four month unpaid leave of absence from the paper and will undertake “a programme of journalism training".
On his return to work Hari said he would post his recorded interviews online.
