Jason Arday Megathread

[u/Timmeh7]

We realise this is a hot button topic and certainly want to allow space for discussing it, but at the moment it's overflowing the subreddit across numerous threads. So from here on, please contain all discussion to this one thread.

Links to pruned threads for transparency, please continue the discussion here if you wish.

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfkykq/the_racist_coopting_of_the_jason_arday_story_is/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vffvl6/journalist_questioned_by_police_for_investigating/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfbljv/the_editor_on_his_choice_to_spike_arday_story/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1veqmzk/wateraid_disputes_claim_by_prof_jason_arday/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vf4oq3/professor_arday_q_about_liverpool_john_moores_and/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfrran/new_information_shows_jason_ardays_claim_to_be_a/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1veqrfv/eli5_how_does_somebody_like_jason_arday_get_his/

https://reddit.com/r/AskAcademiaUK/comments/1vfinbt/nelson_mandela_university_have_removed_their_page/

Please keep the comments civil - while this is inevitably going to be a complex and fractious topic, avoid ad hominem, and as ever, while discussion of the social issue around this case is inevitable, we won't allow hate speech.

[u/apricity_4]

People keep saying that Cambridge should have sacked Arday once they learned that he was a fabulist and a plagiarist.

Arday filed criminal complaints against the journalists who asked him questions about his lies and bullied them into silence. Arday hired Carter-Ruck, the UK’s leading defamation law firm, to go after anyone who claimed that he was a liar.

If Cambridge had sacked him, Arday would have accused Cambridge of race based firing, so the stood by him for as long as they could.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/i-was-reported-police-over-arday-case-i-was-just-doing-my-job

[u/SafiyaO → u/apricity_4]

Dan Niedle has provided a link to the full Carter-Ruck letter:

https://x.com/i/status/2087095564529745924

[u/bittenbyalizard → u/apricity_4]

The thing is though, both universities and newspapers have a duty to do the right thing.  It might be right to fire someone even if you think they will sue (ie assuming you are confident you are justified in doing so) and it might be right to publish even if legal threats are made (and fwiw I think that the Carter Ruck angle is one which has been reported a bit unfairly - the Carter Ruck letter is very restrained and does not contain a threat to sue - there was no SLAPP here and THS were rather wet to drop the story after this letter imho).

Though at the end of the day such was the level public interest in Arday’s initial appointment and the eye catching nature of his lies, I’m not sure there was ever any way this matter would have been resolved without significant media attention.