Time magazine and CNN on Friday suspended columnist and TV host Fareed Zakaria after he admitted to “similarities” between a piece he wrote this week and an article carried by another publication. The TimeWarner-owned news outlets also pulled out the pieces, announcing the suspension was for a month and “pending further review”.

Zakaria, an Indian-American and son of late politician and writer Rafique Zakaria, wrote a weekly column for Time and hosted a Sunday show for CNN.

His last column in Time — The case for gun control — written after the Wisconsin gurdwara shooting, was found too similar to Jill Lepore’s essay in the April 23 issue of The New Yorker.

Zakaria, who was caught by by a media tracking website, owned up. “I made a terrible mistake. It’s a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologise unreservedly to her (Lepore), to my editors at Time, and to my readers.”

Time accepted the apology, but still suspended Zakaria.