(Credit: JohannHari.com, screenshot)

Journalist Johann Hari is resigning from the UK Independent, the Guardian reported Jan. 20.

Hari announced his resignation in a Jan. 20 blogpost in which he explained he doesn’t want his co-workers to “take the flack” for his errors.  As we have written, Hari  was suspended in August after bloggers and journalists accused him of lifting quotes from books and news outlets to put in his reported interviews.  Hari did not note in his interviews that some of the quotes he used were from other publications and instead made it look as if the quotes were made during his interviews. In September 2011, he admitted the plagiarism. After a review of his work, the Independent announced Hari would be taking four months off to be trained in journalism standards.

Hari added that for “nearly six months” he has been “living in New York City” and is now “working on a book.”

Earlier this month, the Independent’s editor Chris Blackhurst told the UK Leveson Inquiry into press standards that Hari would be back in “four or five weeks’ time.”

UPDATE: 1/23/2012 12:21 PM EST: Updated headline