British-Swiss journalist
Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who has written for The Independent and The Huffington Post. In 2011, Hari was suspended from The Independent and later resigned, after admitting to plagiarism and fabrications dating back to 2001, and making malicious edits to the Wikipedia pages of journalists who had criticised his conduct.[1][2] He has since written books on the topics of depression, the war on drugs, and the effect of technology on attention spans.
Early life[edit]
Hari was born in Glasgow, Scotland to a Scottish mother and Swiss father,[3] before his family relocated to London when he was an infant.[4] Hari states he was physically abused in his childhood while his father was away and his mother was ill.[5]
He attended The John Lyon School, an independent school affiliated with Harrow, and then Woodhouse College, a state sixth form in Finchley.[6] Hari graduated from King’s College, Cambridge in 2001 with a double first in social and political sciences.[7]
Early career[edit]
In 2000, Hari was joint winner of The Times Student News Journalist of the Year award for his work on the Cambridge student newspaper, Varsity. He was allegedly forced to leave Varsity as a result of unethical behaviour.[8]
After university, he joined the New Statesman, where he worked between 2001 and 2003, and then wrote two columns a week for The Independent. At the 2003 Press Gazette Awards, he won Young Journalist of the Year.[9] A play by Hari, Going Down in History, was performed at the Garage Theatre in Edinburgh, and his book God Save the Queen? was published by Icon Books in 2002.[9]
In addition to being a columnist for The Independent, Hari’s work also appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The Nation, Le Monde, El País, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Haaretz, and he reported from locations around the world, such as Congo and Venezuela.[10] He appeared regularly as an arts critic on the BBC Two programme The Review Show and was a book critic for Slate. In 2009, he was named by The Daily Telegraph as one of the most influential people on the left in Britain.[11]
Plagiarism and fabrication scandal[edit]
Plagiarism[edit]
In June 2011, bloggers at Deterritorial Support Group, as well as Yahoo! Ireland editor Brian Whelan, asserted that Hari had plagiarised material published in other interviews and writings by his interview subjects.[12][13][14] For example, a 2009 interview with Afghan women’s rights activist Malalai Joya included quotations from her book Raising My Voice in a manner that made them appear as if spoken directly to Hari.[15] Hari initially denied any wrongdoing, stating that the unattributed quotes were for clarification and did not present someone else’s thoughts as his own.[16][17] However, he later said that his behaviour was “completely wrong” and that “when I interviewed people, I often presented things that had been said to other journalists or had been written in books as if they had been said to me, which was not truthful”.[18] Hari was suspended for two months from The Independent[19][1] and in January 2012, it was announced he was leaving the newspaper.[20]
The Media Standards Trust instructed the Council of the Orwell Prize, who had given their 2008 prize to Hari, to examine the allegations.[21][22] The Council concluded that “the article contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else’s story” and did not meet the standards of Orwell Prize-winning journalism.[23][24] Hari returned the prize,[25] though he did not return the prize money of £2,000.[26] He later offered to repay the sum, but Political Quarterly, which had paid the prize money, instead invited him to make a donation to English PEN, of which George Orwell had been a member. Hari arranged with English PEN to make a donation equal to the value of the prize, to be paid in instalments when he returned to work at The Independent, but he did not return to work there.[27]
Fabrication[edit]
In addition to plagiarism, Hari was found to have fabricated elements of stories.[28] In one of the stories for which he won the Orwell Prize, he reported on atrocities in the Central African Republic, claiming that French soldiers told him that “Children would bring us the severed heads of their parents and scream for help, but our orders were not to help them.” However, an NGO worker who translated for Hari said that the quotation was invented and that Hari exaggerated the extent of the devastation in the CAR.[29][30] In his apology after his plagiarism was exposed, Hari claimed that other staff of the NGO had supported his version of events.[31][32]
In an article about military robots, Hari falsely claimed that the former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was attacked by a factory robot and was nearly killed.[33][34] Hari falsely claimed that a large globe erected for the Copenhagen climate summit was “covered with corporate logos” for McDonald’s and Carlsberg, with “the Coke brand … stamped over Africa”. He was also reported to have invented an account of seeing a demonstrator die at the 2001 Genoa G8 summit, when he had, in fact, left in a taxi before the event.[8] Private Eye’s Hackwatch column also suggested that he pretended to have used the drug ecstasy and misrepresented a two-week package tour in Iraq as a one-month research visit, in order to bolster support for the Iraq war by claiming that Iraqi civilians he spoke to were in favour of an invasion.[36]
While Hari was working at the New Statesman, the magazine’s deputy editor, Cristina Odone, doubted the authenticity of quotations in a story he wrote. When she asked to see his notebooks, he stalled, then claimed to have lost them. Odone subsequently found that her Wikipedia entry had been altered by Hari’s sock puppet account “David Rose” to falsely accuse her of homophobia and anti-Semitism.[8]
Hari has been accused of misrepresenting writing by George Galloway, Eric Hobsbawm, Nick Cohen and Noam Chomsky.[37]
Hari used the fake sockpuppet identity David Rose to pretend to be a subeditor who was qualified in environmental science. [38][39]
Misuse of Wikipedia[edit]
In September 2011, Hari admitted that he had edited articles on Wikipedia about himself and journalists with whom he had had disputes. Posing as a journalist named “David Rose”, he added false and defamatory claims to articles about journalists including Nick Cohen, Cristina Odone, Francis Wheen, Andrew Roberts, Niall Ferguson,[40] and Oliver Kamm,[41] and edited the article about himself “to make him seem one of the essential writers of our times”.[40]
In July 2011, Cohen wrote about the suspicious Wikipedia editing in The Spectator,[40] prompting New Statesman journalist David Allen Green to publish a blog post collecting evidence.[42] This led to a community investigation and “David Rose” was blocked from Wikipedia.[42] Hari published an apology in The Independent, admitting that he had been “David Rose” and writing: “I edited the entries of people I had clashed with in ways that were juvenile or malicious: 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. I apologise to the latter group unreservedly and totally.”[43]
Use of libel law to suppress criticism[edit]
Hari used threats of suing for libel to prevent critics revealing his misrepresentations.[44] His critique of a Nick Cohen article, “What’s Left: How Liberals Lost Their Way”, was criticised by British bloggers for factual and interpretive errors. Hari used libel law against a blogger who wrote that “a reputation for making things up should spell career death”, forcing the blogger to remove the post in question.[37]
Later career[edit]
Chasing the Scream (2015)[edit]
In January 2012, after leaving The Independent, Hari announced that he was writing a book on the war on drugs, which was subsequently published as Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.[45][46] His 2015 TED Talk, entitled “Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong”, has been viewed over 19 million times (as of 31 March 2022) and lays out the idea that most addictions are functional responses to experiences and a lack of healthy supportive relationships, rather than a simple biological need for a particular substance.[47]
Due to the previous scandals, Hari put the audio of some interviews conducted for the book online. Writer Jeremy Duns criticised instances where quotes were inaccurately transcribed or misrepresented, stating that out of a sample of dozens of clips, “in almost all cases, words in quotes had been changed or omitted without being noted, often for no apparent purpose, but in several cases to subtly change the narrative.”[48][49]
In a review for New Matilda, Michael Brull expressed reservations about Hari’s citational practices and highlighted contradictions between the book’s narrative and a 2009 article by Hari. He concluded: “I think Hari has provided a useful overview of some of the fundamental issues worth considering. But they should be treated as the opening shots of a casual polemicist and populariser, rather than the measured verdict of an academic.”[50]
Lost Connections (2018)[edit]
In January 2018, Hari’s book Lost Connections, which deals with depression and anxiety, was published, with Hari citing his childhood issues, career crisis, and experiences with antidepressants and psychotherapy as fuelling his curiosity in the subject. Kirkus Reviews praised the book.[51] Psychiatrist Carmine Pariante criticised Hari’s “extreme scepticism” of antidepressants as “wrong, unhelpful and even dangerous”.[52] The journalist Joe Muggs described the rehabilitation of Hari as “irresponsible and dangerous”, describing the book as “a hodge-podge of other people’s research put together into something that was by turns half-baked and half the story”.[53]
An excerpt published in The Observer was sharply criticised by neuroscientist and Guardian columnist Dean Burnett, who pointed out that Hari appeared to be reporting as his own discoveries material—such as the biopsychosocial model—that has been common knowledge for decades, and for misrepresenting the medical, psychiatric, and scientific establishments as “some shadowy monolithic organisation, in thrall to the drug industry”.[54] Burnett subsequently wrote that he had been pressured by friends of Hari’s at The Guardian to offer Hari a pre-emptive right to reply and, after publication, to link to Hari’s attempt at rebuttal.[55]
The journalist Zoe Stavri criticised the book for a lack of citations for key claims like “between 65 and 80% of people on antidepressants are depressed again within a year”, reliance on the work of a single researcher, treating research on a single class of antidepressants as if it applies to all antidepressants, and conflating stress and depression.[56][57] The psychologist and science writer Stuart Ritchie criticised Hari for repeatedly making the claim that “between 65 and 80% of people on antidepressants are depressed again within a year” without a clear citation. He traced the source of the claim to a pop science book rather than a review of the scientific literature.[58]
Stolen Focus (2022)[edit]
In January 2022, Hari published a book called Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, claiming that elements of modern lifestyles, including social media, are “destroying our ability to concentrate”.[59] The book received praise from celebrities including Hillary Clinton and Stephen Fry.[60] The book debuted at number seven on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending 12 February 2022.[61]
Scientists Stuart Ritchie and Dean Burnett both criticised the book for failing to cite strong evidence for the claim of shrinking attention spans, as well as presenting mainstream psychological concepts as niche ideas that Hari had discovered.[62] Writer/broadcaster Matthew Sweet investigated some of the claims in the book and found that Hari had failed to cite the primary sources for some studies, and misrepresented the results of studies that suggested multitasking could have benefits in certain conditions.[63][64]
Personal life[edit]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2022)
Hari is gay.[65][66]
Student News Journalist of the Year by The Times, 2000[67]
Young Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards, 2003[68]
Newspaper Journalist of the Year at Amnesty International Media Awards, 2007,[69] for the article The Dark Side of Dubai[70]
Author of Story of the Year at the Environmental Press Awards, 2008[71]
Orwell Prize for political journalism, 2008[69] (withdrawn 2011)
Journalist of the Year at the Stonewall Awards, 2009[72]
Cultural Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards, 2009[73]
Newspaper Journalist of the Year at Amnesty International Media Awards, 2010,[74] for the article Congo’s tragedy: The War the World Forgot[75]
Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, 2010[76]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
^ a b Deans, Jason (13 July 2011). “Journalist suspended over plagiarism row”. The Guardian. p. 10. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
^ “Johann Hari: ‘I failed badly. When you harm people, you should shut up, go away and reflect on what happened'”. TheGuardian.com. 2 January 2015.
^ “Johann Hari: ‘I failed badly. When you harm people, you should shut up, go away and reflect on what happened'”. The Guardian. 2 January 2015.
^ “About the Author”. Chasing The Scream. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
^ Anthony, Andrew (7 January 2018). “Johann Hari: ‘I was afraid to dismantle the story about depression and anxiety'”. The Observer.
^ Hari, Johann. “A simple lesson on schools: Money works”. Archived from the original on 26 January 2013. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
^ Adkins, T. S.; Bulmer, N. S. D.; Jones, P. M.; Langley, H. C. (2018). A Register of Admissions to King’s College Cambridge, 1934–2010. King’s College Cambridge. p. 988.
^ a b c “Dirty Hari”. Commentary Magazine. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ a b Spanner, Huw (November 2004). “Let The Fiery Columns Glow”. Third Way Magazine. pp. 16–19.
^ Hari, Johann (2015). Chasing The Scream. Bloomsbury USA, New York. p. 180.
^ Dale, Iain; Brivati, Brian (27 September 2009). “Top 100 most influential Left-wingers: 100-51”. The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 September 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
^ Sabbagh, Dan (28 June 2011). “Johann Hari denies these accusations of plagiarism”. The Guardian. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
^ O’Neill, Brendan (29 June 2011). “Johann Hari and the tyranny of the ‘good lie'”. The Telegraph blog. Archived from the original on 2 July 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
^ Flock, Elizabeth (28 June 2011). “Johann Hari denies he plagiarized, sparking mockery campaign”. The Washington Post. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
^ Dowell, Ben (1 July 2011). “Johann Hari: more plagiarism allegations”. The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
^ Hari, Johann. “Interview etiquette”. johannhari.com. Archived from the original on 30 June 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
^ Hari, Johann (29 June 2011). “Johann Hari: My journalism is at the centre of a storm. This is what I have learned”. The Independent. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
^ Anthony, Andrew (7 January 2018). “Johann Hari: ‘I was afraid to dismantle the story about depression and anxiety'”. the Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
^ McAthy, Rachel (12 July 2011). “Orwell Prize Council begins investigation into Johann Hari|Johann Hari suspended for two months pending investigation”. journalism.co.uk. Mousetrap Media.
^ “Johann Hari leaves the Independent after plagiarism storm”. TheGuardian.com. 20 January 2012.
^ Gunter, Joel (30 June 2011). “Orwell Prize Council begins investigation into Johann Hari”. journalism.co.uk. Mousetrap Media.
^ “Media Standards Trust response to Johann Hari allegations” (Press release). Media Standards Trust. 28 June 2011.
^ “Johann Hari did not deserve Orwell Prize, say organisers”. Politics.co.uk. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “Orwell Prize accuses Johann Hari of plagiarism”. the Guardian. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “The Orwell Prize and Johann Hari”. 28 September 2011.
^ Pugh, Andrew (27 September 2011). “Johann Hari yet to return Orwell prize £2,000”. Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ “The Orwell Prize and Johann Hari – English PEN”. 4 October 2011.
^ “Guardian admits to fabrication by freelancer”. Financial Times.
^ “Top UK Journalist Stripped Of Major Prize As Scandal Growns And Grows”. HuffPost UK. 27 July 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “Johann Hari in Africa: the crucial emails – Telegraph Blogs”. 30 July 2011. Archived from the original on 30 July 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “Johann Hari: A personal apology”. The Independent. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “Johann Hari admits plagiarism and returns Orwell Prize | Media news”. www.journalism.co.uk. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “Johann Hari: The age of the killer robot is no longer a sci-fi fantasy”. Independent.co.uk. 22 January 2010.
^ “Commentary on Killer Robots is Mostly Bunk”. 26 January 2010.
^ “Hari’s Game”. Private Eye. No. 1076. 23 March 2003. p. 5. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ a b Michael Weiss. “Bloggers defy Britain’s tough libel laws”. Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “Archive.ph”.
^ “”What’s in a name? That which we call a Rose.””. 10 July 2011.
^ a b c Cohen, Nick (9 July 2011). “Diary”. The Spectator. London. Archived from the original on 4 August 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
^ Thompson, Damian (11 July 2011). “The scandal that will not go away”. The Daily Telegraph blog. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011.
^ a b Allen Green, David (15 September 2011). “The tale of Mr Hari and Dr Rose”. New Statesman. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
^ Hari, Johann (14 September 2011). “A personal apology”. The Independent.
^ “The tale of Mr Hari and Dr Rose”. New Statesman. 8 June 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ Hari, Johann (20 January 2012). “Update”. Johannhari.com. Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
^ “Chasing the Scream”. Bloomsbury Publishing.
^ “TED talk: Everything you thought you knew about addictions is wrong”. 18 January 2018.
^ “Johann Hari Is Still Lying to You”. Jeremy Duns. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “A Short*, Frustrated Piece On Johann Hari’s Quote Deceptions”. Jeremy Duns. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “Chasing the Scream Review Part IV: My Reservations About Johann Hari”. 4 March 2016.
^ “Kirkus Review: Lost Connections”. 23 January 2018.
^ “As a psychiatrist, I know that Johann Hari’s views on antidepressants are wrong”. Independent.co.uk. 10 January 2018.
^ “The Quietus | Opinion | Black Sky Thinking | Why the Rehabilitation of Plagiarist Johann Hari is Irresponsible & Dangerous”.
^ Burnett, Dean (9 January 2018). “Is everything Johann Hari knows about depression wrong?”. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
^ Burnett, Dean (22 January 2021). “[Thread] This has come up a few times lately. But it suddenly dawned on me that I’m not employed by the Guardian any more, so can be more honest about how this went down. It’s a very strong example of how ‘the media’ can look after ‘their own’ so vigorously, no matter the consequences”. Retrieved 23 January 2021 – via Twitter.
^ “Five things wrong with Johann Hari’s comeback book that I spotted from the extract alone”. 8 January 2018.
^ “Thinking critically about Lost Connections 1: An introduction, of sorts”. 22 January 2018.
^ @StuartJRitchie (11 January 2018). “Thread Part 2 -> Eventually, I found Hari’s source! It’s not a recent meta-analysis of the full literature on anti-…” (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ “Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen”. the Guardian. 2 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “Stolen Focus : Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again”. stolenfocusbook.com. 2 July 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
^ “Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction – Best Sellers”. The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
^ “Johann Hari’s stolen ideas”. UnHerd. 7 January 2022. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ “Thread by @DrMatthewSweet on Thread Reader App”. threadreaderapp.com. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
^ Linehan, Hugh (15 January 2022). “Too few of us are paying attention to the problems with Johann Hari’s new book”. The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
^ Hari, Johann (13 December 2002). “Sleeping with the enemy”. The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
^ Hari, Johann (1 March 2015). “Has being gay influenced my view of the war on drugs?”. OpenDemocracy. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
^ Morris, Sally (15 June 2000). “Future Perfect”. The Times. London.
^ “British Press Awards: Past Winners”. Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
^ a b “Johann Hari”. BBC News. 5 May 2006. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
^ “The dark side of Dubai”. Independent.co.uk. 7 April 2009. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
^ “Winners announced for Environmental Press Awards”. Press Gazette. London. 26 November 2008. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
^ “Independent journalist wins Stonewall award”. The Independent. London. 7 November 2009. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
^ “Previous Winners 2009”. Comment Awards. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
^ “AIUK Media Awards: Winners and Nominees 2010”. Amnesty International UK. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
^ “Congo’s tragedy: the war the world forgot”. Independent.co.uk. 5 May 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
^ “Johann Hari picks up Martha Gellhorn Prize”. Press Gazette blog. London. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
External links[edit]
