SMH columnist Tanveer Ahmed on ice amid plagiarism claims

RISING media star and SMH columnist Tanveer Ahmed has been accused of plagiarism and his column has been suspended.

Sean Aylmer

RISING media star and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Tanveer Ahmed has been accused of plagiarism and his column has been suspended.

Dr Ahmed, who writes a column for the SMH, and makes appearances on TV and radio, is a former SBS journalist and practising psychiatrist in Sydney.

Last night on ABC1, Dr Ahmed's alleged track record as a plagiarist was exposed by Jonathan Holmes on Media Watch.

An article in the SMH last Friday -- "Psychology loses academic clout as therapists turn substitute friends" -- was suggested by the program to have used a book review in The New York Times and an essay in The New Atlantis without attribution.

According to the ABC program, Dr Ahmed also lifted a substantial amount of the copy for an SMH news review feature from other sources without attribution.

"Media Watch has identified six other articles by Tanveer Ahmed, including one written for the website Mamamia, which contain passages lifted from other sources," Holmes said.

Dr Ahmed, who was born in Bangladesh and educated in Sydney, has been widely published from Mamamia to journals The Monthly and Griffith Review. Last year, his first book, The Exotic Rissole, was launched by Foreign Minister Bob Carr.

The prolific writer is also a stand-up comedian and was a Liberal Party candidate for Marrickville in the 2008 NSW local council elections.

SMH editor-in-chief Sean Aylmer said Dr Ahmed's column had been suspended while the matter was being investigated.

Dr Ahmed told the program he usually attributed his sources: "You have identified several instances where I have failed to do this appropriately. I recognise this as careless and lazy, but as my overall output . . . demonstrates, those instances are uncharacteristic and out of character. I sincerely apologise to my readers, editors and . . . Fairfax Media."