17/08/2026
PROFESSOR JASON ARDAY - LYNCHED BY THE PRESS and hounded by Academic Peers in Cambridge who first contacted the racist man who started the Plagarism row. SIGN THE PETITION Jason Arday: Demand a public inquiry now - Professor Ardray WAS CLEARED OF PLAGIARISM yet they pursue the lynching https://goodlawproject.org/petition/jason-arday-letter/
Demand a public inquiry now
Commission an immediate public inquiry to ensure we never see a tragic death like Dr Arday's again.
To: UK Prime Minister, UK Culture Secretary
Enough is enough.
There cannot be any doubt that Dr Arday’s tragic death was the direct, foreseeable and foreseen result of press harassment. A significant element in that harassment was the colour of his skin. Self-regulation of the press has comprehensively failed.
Several weeks ago, Simon Baron-Cohen, director of Cambridge University’s Autism Research centre, warned publicly that “1 in 4 autistic people have planned or attempted su***de” and talked of the “relentless bullying of a vulnerable autistic man” which “raises safe-guarding issues”. Many of the signatories to this letter warned multiple media outlets privately that their relentless pursuit of Dr Arday risked his su***de.
Two weeks of relentless harassment followed, continuing even after his resignation as a Professor when the reasonable public interest in the story had diminished or evaporated. Yesterday, Dr Arday died in the most tragic circumstances. His tragic death did not result from the allegations of plagiarism but from the press coverage.
There cannot be any doubt that racism lay at the heart of this story.
Dr Arday was a relatively obscure figure outside of academia. Far more consequential figures, in whom there was a profound public interest, like Rachel Reeves and Jonathan Reynolds faced plausible allegations of embellishing their CVs or plagiarism. But the stories garnered relatively little coverage. When the academic Professor George Holmes – not merely a Professor but a Vice Chancellor – was implicated in a fraud scandal the story was barely covered. So too when William O’Reilly, another Professor at the University of Cambridge, faced plausible allegations of plagiarising student essays, again, there was very little in the media. When the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, faced plagiarism allegations they, also, received a tiny fraction of the coverage given to Dr Arday.
What those stories had in common is that they were about white people.
The harassment of public figures because of the colour of their skin is not unique to Dr Arday. Misan Harriman, Diane Abbott, Eniola Aluko, Jameela Jamil, Halima Begum and others have experienced press harassment with racist overtones. To be Black and a public figure is now enough to make you a target.
Black people are fearful and on the evidence they are right to be.
The years since the Leveson inquiry have taught us that the press is not interested in self-regulation. IPSO has failed. Lessons that should have been learned from the tragic deaths of Lucy Meadows and then Caroline Flack were not learned. Instead of getting better, press conduct is getting worse. And the impact of that failure is deadly.
We respectfully ask you to commission an immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press given its contribution to Dr Arday’s tragic death.
The undersigned
Diane Abbott, MP
Lord Simon Woolley
Dr Kehinde Andrews
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP
Nadia Whittome, MP
Clive Lewis, MP
Zack Polanski
Imran Khan KC
Dr Shabna Begum, CEO Runnymede Trust
Lord Victor Adebowale
Sir Patrick Vernon OBE
Eniola Aluko MBE
Misan Harriman
Dr Halima Begum
Jameela Jamil
Professor Priyamvada Gopal
Professor Rochelle Burgess
Professor Myrtle Emmanuel
Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
Dr Olajumoke Jummy Okoya
Dr Yansie Rolston
Dr William Essilfie
Daniel Kebede
Narinder Kaur
Carol Vorderman
Juliet Stevenson
Khalid Abdalla
Nikesh Shukla
Musa Okwonga
Amrou Al-Khadi
Naqqash Khalid
Amar Chadha-Patel
Zawe Ashton
Jim Wilson
Inua Ellams MBE
Himesh Patel
Anna Higgs
Carl Anka
Ellen E Jones
Clarisse Loughrey
Nels Abbey
Stacey Patton
Jolyon Maugham KC
Melanie Khi Rafe
Hanna Flint
Fatima Serghini
Dawn Estefan
Deirdre LaBassiere
Lara Oyedele
Yvonne Christie
Danielle Bridge
Dr Ariel Breaux Torres
Jay Perkins
Ros Griffiths
Joanne Anderson
Anna Maria Ssemuyaba
Dr Shereen Daniels
Marti Burgess
Asif Kapadia
Danielle Goff
Judy Harrison
SHANA DE CARSIGNAC MONGWANGA
Commission an immediate public inquiry into how to ensure a responsible press given its contribution to Dr Arday’s tragic death.
