WASHINGTON - Time magazine and CNN say they have suspended Fareed Zakaria, a prominent American journalist of Indian origin, for plagiarising parts of a column on gun control.
Zakaria, whose foreign policy writings were generally slanted against Pakistan, has admitted the error and apologised, according to media reports.
The host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS borrowed several paragraphs from an April 23 New Yorker article for his column titled ‘The Case for Gun Control’ that appeared in the current issue of Time. A shorter version of the piece appeared on a CNN blog. The New Yorker article, on the National Rifle Association, was written by Jill LePore.
In an apology Friday on his CNN blog, Zakaria said, in part, “I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologise unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers.”
The Time magazine has suspended Zakaria’s column for a month. “Time accepts Fareed’s apology, but he did violate our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well,” said Ali Zelenko, Time’s senior vice president of communication. CNN said Zakaria’s blog post containing the copied sections had been removed, adding “CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria while this matter is under review.”