MUMBAI: In a surprising development, noted American journalist Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by CNN and Time Magazine for plagiariasm, a charge that Zakaria admitted.

Zakaria has been accused of plagiarism for a piece on gun control that bore similarities to an article by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker.

"Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column on gun control, which was also a topic of conversation on this blog, bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore?s essay in the April 23rd issue of The New Yorker," Zakaria said in a statement.

"They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time and CNN, and to my readers and viewers everywhere."

Following Zakaria?s admission to plagiarism, his employer Time announced that it was suspending Zakaria?s column for a month, pending review.

?Time accepts Fareed?s apology, but what he did violates 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,? Ali Zelenko, a spokeswoman for the magazine said.

?As a result, we are suspending Fareed?s column for a month, pending further review."

CNN said it would suspend Zakaria?s weekly foreign affairs show ?Fareed Zakaria GPS? for an indefinite period pending review.

?We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria?s Time column, for which he has apologised. He wrote a shorter blog post on CNN.com on the same issue which included similar unattributed excerpts. That blog post has been removed and CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria while this matter is under review,? CNN said.

Zakaria became editor of Newsweek International in 2000. After spending 10 years at the magazine, Zakaria moved to Time magazine to serve as a contributing editor and columnist.
He has written on a variety of subjects for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and as a wine columnist for the web magazine Slate.

Zakaria is the author of From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America?s World Role, The Future of Freedom, and The Post-American World.