Petition after the death of academic Jason Arday

More than 31,000 people, including several MPs, have signed a petition urging British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to open a public inquiry into media harassment of deceased academic Jason Arday, organizers said on Sunday.

The petition was launched by the activist group “Good Law Project” after the discovery on Friday of the body of Jason Arday, who was appointed three years ago as the youngest black professor in the history of Cambridge University.

The group had supported Jason Arday since he resigned earlier this month from the university and his position as a fellow of Jesus College, after both institutions opened investigations into allegations of plagiarism and fabrications or exaggerations regarding his personal background.

Police said his death was not considered suspicious at this stage, appearing to favor a natural death or suicide and investigating to determine the cause. “There is no doubt that Dr. Arday’s tragic death was the direct, predictable and intended consequence of media harassment,” the Good Law Project wrote on its website. “The color of his skin played a determining role in this harassment,” denounces the group.

The accusations against Jason Arday, aged 41 at the time of his death, had received widespread coverage in the British press after another academic - Nathan Cofnas, who describes himself as a "racial realist" and who was dismissed from his post at Cambridge in 2024 - said in July that he had discovered numerous instances of plagiarism in the deceased's work. British media and right-wing commentators seized on the controversy, claiming that Jason Arday, who disputed the accusations, had unduly benefited from diversity, equality and inclusion policies.

The Good Law Project said "many signatories" to its campaign had "privately warned several media outlets that their relentless targeting of Dr. Arday risked driving him to suicide." A vigil for the late academic is to take place on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square, London