In 2008 the winner in the Journalism category was
Johann Hari. In July 2011 the Council of the Orwell Prize decided to revoke Hari's award and withdraw the prize. Public announcement was delayed as Hari was then under investigation by
The Independent for professional misconduct. In September 2011 Hari announced that he was returning his prize "as an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews", although he "stands by the articles that won the prize". A few weeks later, the Council of the Orwell Prize confirmed that Hari had returned the plaque but not the £2,000 prize money, and issued a statement that one of the articles submitted for the prize, "How multiculturalism is betraying women", published by
The Independent in April 2007, "contained inaccuracies and conflated different parts of someone else's story (specifically, a report in
Der Spiegel)". Hari did not initially return the prize money of £2,000. He later offered to repay the money, but
Political Quarterly, responsible for paying the prize money in 2008, instead invited Hari to make a donation to
English PEN, of which George Orwell was a member. Hari arranged with English PEN to make a donation equal to the value of the prize, to be paid in installments once Hari returned to work at
The Independent. However, Hari did not return to work at
The Independent. ==References==