Green Party leader Zack Polanski has demanded a public inquiry into the press, calling for its “culture and behaviour” to be investigated and the media “sorted out” in the wake of Jason Arday’s suicide. The Telegraph has the story:
Zack Polanski has demanded an inquiry into the “culture and behaviour” of the press, adding that it was time the media was “sorted out”.
The Green Party leader signed a letter to Andy Burnham demanding the Government launch an inquiry into how to “ensure a responsible press” following Jason Arday’s death.
He has also described the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) regulator as “toothless” and called for the forced sell-off of most national newspapers by banning foreign ownership.
His intervention comes as Green Party members called for the Government to reopen the Leveson inquiry to ensure its “full completion” and to place the media under a “genuinely independent and recognised regulator with effective enforcement powers”.
Green members put forward the motion that would also see a new regulator “map and address” examples of racism and ableism and monitor “harassment” allegedly arising from news stories.
The motion was put forward two days after Mr Arday’s death and before the Greens’ conference in October, where it could become party policy if approved by a majority of members.
Mr Arday, who was Cambridge University’s youngest-ever black professor, was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday.
The 41 year-old had resigned from his position as professor of sociology of education the week before, citing the “unrelenting level of public scrutiny” following accusations of plagiarism and the university launching an investigation into his appointment.
On Saturday, Mr Burnham paid tribute to Mr Arday, whose death he described as a tragedy. He also called for a “moment of reflection” and urged people “not to rush to judgment”.
However, in a post on X, Mr Polanski wrote: “I don’t think it would be ‘rushing to judgment’ to see that the press hounding people – especially people of colour – has been going on for a very long time.
“Really spineless response from the Prime Minister here that utterly fails to recognise the moment to tackle the press.”
On Sunday, Mr Polanski’s words escalated further. Responding to an article in the the Mail which praised this summer’s five heatwaves, he said: “It’s time we sorted out the press. Constant misinformation to protect their donors and fossil fuels is destroying lives and our planet. The Government must step up and stop being cowardly.”
He has also added his signature to a letter to the Prime Minister and Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, organised by the Good Law Project demanding an “immediate” public inquiry into the press.
It said: “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.
“The years since the Leveson inquiry have taught us that the press is not interested in self-regulation. Ipso has failed.
“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.”
He has also urged his supporters to sign a second petition calling for an inquiry into the “culture and behaviour” of the press, organised by Hacked Off, an organisation that has demanded state regulation of Fleet Street for the past 15 years.
The group has also urged ministers to push ahead with the second part of the Leveson inquiry into the culture and ethics of the press, which was launched in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire.
Lord Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: “For the Green Party to pre-empt the inquest into [Mr Arday’s] death and weaponise it to pursue their anti-free speech agenda is both cynical and exploitative.
“The British press does not need to be ‘sorted out’. Scrutinising powerful and influential figures and holding them to account, including Zack Polanksi, is precisely what it should be doing.”
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
If anyone/thing needed sorted out it is the proliferation of the under-qualified over-promoted idiots who we, the majority, have permitted to obtain positions of power.
Simplistic thinker or he is taking advantage of Ardays demise.
The implication here then is that no-one can be criticised by the press in case they commit suicide. This of course is nonsense.
Mr Arday killed himself because lied on his cv and the DEI zealots at Cambridge promoted him way above his pay grade. When Arday was found out he could not face the scrutiny. It was not racism – although the baying mob on Friday night seem to want to turn him into another George Floyd.
David Paulden speaks…we can safely ignore.
“It said: “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.”
No it wasn’t. He was found out and couldn’t cope, which is a sad thing but anyone who is economical with the truth will be found out.
And where is Mr Polanski’s letter criticising the press harassment of another dissembler, a certain Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor? And of a chap called Peter Mandelson?
Give it a rest Zack
David Paulden: As Ali said of, er, Bonavena (I think) – “I ain’t never had someone I wanna whoop so bad..”
Yes Zack let’s gag the press. Sadly you stayed silent when the press did not tell the truth about the covid plandemic and the unsafe and ineffective vaccines given to millions for the past six yrs.. MSM bought and paid for. Even you should know that Zack.
I am calling for Polanski to be sorted out.
I think we could place Polanski in the new No 10 South (Pole)
Ja! Mein Führer! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!
Zack should not get anywhere near number 10, or number 10 North.
Number 10 on what list?
He shouldn’t be allowed anywhere a plug socket let alone any other source of power.
The press and particularly The Daily Sceptic were obsessed by the Ardley case.
The facts clearly show that the reporting of Ardley’s’ fraud was way over the top for a minor misdemeanour compared to other major news events the press could have spent all that time and effort reporting on.
It must have had some effect on his decision to commit suicide.
The Daily Sceptic had numerous articles about the case.
Even their News Round-Up was filled with articles about him.
6th August 9 out of 42 articles.
7th August 13 out of 39 articles.
8th August 13 out of 46 articles.
9th August 9 out of 46 articles.
Etc. etc. etc.
I remember reading them at the time and saying to myself that this is way over the top.
There is no doubt in my mind that the exaggerated importance the UK press gave to this case pushed Ardley to commit suicide.
It seems to me a pretty obvious public interest story because of the scale of the deception, the supposedly august institutions involved and the broader context of DEI and fake anti racism. His supporters and the fake anti racism industry made it worse by suggesting he was being treated unfairly.
A minor public interest story on the inside pages perhaps but not plastered on the front pages.
Yes, he only received his position because he lied and he was black.
Yes, DEI is an abomination against the principle of the best man for the job.
Yes, the papers and The Daily Sceptic went over the top on their reporting because he was black and that over the top reporting made him commit suicide.
Regarding the relative importance of the story we can agree to differ though I would say that the fundamental problem with DEI is not “the best man for the job” but the triumph of lies over truth – and that must be challenged whenever and wherever it happens because if you don’t, you are lost.
I may be misinterpreting what you mean by “because he is black” in which case apologies but I think that you may be being unfair and inaccurate – his blackness got him into the DEI racket but it was being in the racket that made the story, not his blackness.
PS downvote was not from me though I disagree with you
If I were a newspaper editor with the power of God Almighty I would have reported the story without naming him but I don’t think it would have been possible or practical to keep his name a secret
The facts clearly show that the reporting of Ardley’s’ fraud was way over the top for a minor misdemeanour
Arday’s fraud was not minor – he got a professorship on the basis of the most appalling and deliberate lies. Equally appalling, he was knowingly aided and abetted in his lies by the anti-whitists, anglophobes, and repudiators of Western Civilisation at Cambridge “University” of The New Dark Age.
It was minor enough not to warrant all the media attention from the gutter press which ultimately made him commit suicide.
It wasn’t the media attention that killed him. It was his own lies that killed him. That plus the anti-whitists at Cambridge who wanted a DIE pet to play with. Also, Arday got the job in place of someone who was better qualified.
It was more likely a case of narcissistic collapse because he was found out.
Bad hair, bad beard and bad ideas.
The holy trinity of Green-ism.
Open-toe raffia sandals? We never see his feet.
Why? Is he worried about universities (or maybe one of them) having a “bad press”?
As I see it, the only time Arday’s race was “weaponised” was during the process of getting him into (and keeping him in) a post that he was unqualified, both academically and temperamentally, to occupy.
The press will always expose someone who, by deception, has obtained an advantage that is not due to them. That’s what journalism should be about.
If any particular body should be investigated in some form of inquiry, it’s the University of Cambridge, which failed in its duty of care to one of its members of staff.
I am not sure I am as confident in the enthusiasm of the press for rooting out all such bad behaviour as you suggest. They seem to be selective.
Admittedly, the only daily I see is the Mail, read enthusiastically by a family member every day. That paper certainly seems to thrive on sniping at people caught up in some kind of scandal.
really? Do you also think the press should have exposed the gov’t politicians and health advisors who misled the entire country during covid. A MUCH bigger incident than one man who misled his uni. Haven’t heard the press report honestly on the plandemic nor the Unsafe and ineffective Covid vaxxes, have you?
One of the things you notice when you read real black intellectuals – Thomas Sowell, for example – and not the fakes like Jason Arday, is that the the real black intellectuals hate being treated as the pets of white people. But somehow this fact has escaped the likes Zack Polanski.
For big gay racists like Jack Polanski, black people are just fashion accessories. But they’ve go to be the ‘right type’ of black person.
The Greens appear to fear free speech. I wonder why?
Because they are socialists. And socialists believe the individual needs to submit to the collective. We must all submit to the collectivist project. Speaking up against it is the opposite of submitting.
“And socialists believe the individual needs to submit to the collective.”
At least that’s the propaganda.
In practice the “collective” means a cabal of criminals.
The ideal: society as a gigantic forced labour camp where nobody has any rights apart from a few individuals who possess total power.
Exactly!
Boy do they ever. Why weren’t they fighting for free speech during covid plandemic and while the unsafe and ineffective Covid vaxxes were administered. How about the Geoengineering taking place for yrs now. Never heard the greens demand free speech for any of these “conspiracies” we now know are true!
The Press also let us down badly during the scamdemic they just became part of the government propaganda machine and largely still are. This is one of the rare occasions where they’ve actually done their job properly.