Remember Johann Hari, a journalist who writes for The Independent? He crossed our path when he came on an NR cruise under false pretences, always intending to write it up with a sneer. Under the false name of David Rose, he edited Wikipedia entries about people he had clashed with, and in his own admission he did so “in ways that were juvenile or malicious.” Another of his habits has been to pretend that he was providing original quotations from people when actually he was lifting them from other sources: The word for that is plagiarism. A prize exists in commemoration of George Orwell. When the judges in their innocence awarded it to Hari, a storm of protest led to the exposure of his various tricks and fakeries, so that today he has been obliged to admit his guilt, apologize, and return the prize. The next winner ought to be someone having a shot at writing the essay that George Orwell would have written about Hari.
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About the Author
David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.
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