Will the BBC apologise for its role in the Jason Arday story?
The BBC’s coverage of the Jason Arday scandal is something of a scandal itself. The corporation spent years uncritically promoting the myth of Arday. Prior to July 2026, the broadcaster produced at least 11 radio programmes (totalling nearly six hours of Arday content), four news articles, and two TV interviews championing the academic and repeating his false claims. When the initial story broke about his plagiarism and lies, the BBC doubled down on its defence of the academic. The first article which I would say features real criticism of the former professor was published on 6 August, a day after he resigned, more than two weeks after the original Arday exposé was published on Substack, and six years after the BBC’s first hagiographic piece about the late academic.
