We didn’t cover the story about Jason Arday, who lied his way into a Cambridge University professorship and was later outed as a plagiarist and a fraud by racist academic Nathan Cofnas. Despite Nathan Cofnas’s ill intent, the story behind Jason Arday’s serial fraud was very true and was verified by multiple journalists.
The British press picked up the story and published it as the scandal that it is: a man hired by what is supposedly one of the most prestigious universities in the world, on the racial merit that he was Black and not for his academic merit.
We are a small press and the issue didn’t seem to have any international importance; however, things have escalated significantly after his death. It is extremely worrying that following Arday’s death, there is now a major backlash against the British press.
Jason Arday allegedly committed suicide, and sources within the British left-wing spectrum are now up in arms against the British press. Green Party Leader Zack Polanski is calling for scrutiny of the press for “trial by media”. London Mayor Sadiq Khan accused the British press of public hounding. Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy described the media’s reporting as a witch hunt.
Surprisingly, there is little scrutiny of Cambridge University, which enabled Jason Arday’s fraud in the first place. Cambridge University threw meritocracy down the gutter and relaxed its oversight on a racial basis, with what many call DEI criteria (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
Jason Arday plagiarised several of his works including his Phd, faked his CV, concocted a series of lies across a number of years to obtain an academic position and threatened other academics and journalists who scrutinised him with police reports and libel threats. As much as this story is about Jason Arday, it is also about the decrepit and falling standards of academia. The story was clearly in the national interest.
The British press can be very aggressive, and its tabloids are known to have launched attacks on public figures which can be disproportionate, with the case of Princess Diana being one of the most famous cases where the British press failed to uphold the truth in favour of sensationalism.
On the other hand, attacking the British press for publishing the truth about Jason Arday and Cambridge University seems to be a senseless political act of vengeance motivated by ideological grounds and not a genuine concern for how Jason Arday was treated. If anything, Cambridge University should take all the blame for elevating a Black man into an undeserving position and using him as a champion of equality.
In reality, Jason Arday ‘s actions hurt all people of colour who are struggling with racism on a daily basis. Black and coloured people often have to work harder than White people to prove themselves and their worth. Jason Arday has fuelled racism with his actions and brought even greater scrutiny on Black and coloured people who currently hold high-profile positions. He is an embarrassment and a stain on the Black community.
Ultimately, Jason Arday stole an academic post which was merited by others who made great sacrifices to obtain their PhDs and to prove themselves in academia. He used his own Blackness to acquire unmerited privilege and influence. This is outrageous and very unfair to Black and coloured people who have worked by the rules and made massive sacrifices to get where they are.
In fact, his suicide has only vindicated the British press. His last act in life was truly typical of his selfish character: he avoided accountability and, above all, cowardly abandoned his two children and his loved ones. There should be no compassion for men who abandon their children, let alone abandon them out of shame for their behaviour.
Fraudsters like Jason Arday have sociopathic tendencies and they don’t think like ordinary people. They don’t consider the consequences of their actions and they perpetrate their frauds systematically with a series of lies they need to uphold on a long-term basis.
From my personal point of view, it is incredibly outrageous that racism can mar meritocracy by being unjust to coloured people. But it is equally outrageous that a Black man would use his blackness to get ahead at the expense of others.
Jason Arday was a serial fraudster who cheated in academia and put a stain on the Black community. He also abandoned his children and his family. I struggle to find any sympathy with this individual, especially after abandoning his children. The British press did nothing wrong in covering his story of academic fraud.
Also – due to his serial lies, I highly doubt that the man was autistic at all – it seems this was just one of his litany of lies to gain sympathy and advance his career. His past childhood friends and school-mates denied that he couldn’t read or write or that he was non-verbal.
This is not a story about Jason Arday. Ultimately this is a story about falling academic standards and Cambridge University is all to blame for using him as a champion of diversity eventually compromising diversity and meritocracy in the process.
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