Met Police admit error over investigating reporter in Arday row

The Metropolitan Police admitted it was wrong to investigate journalist Jack Grove after he emailed questions to Jason Arday, with Sir Mark Rowley saying the force had “dropped the ball.” Police said officers should not have pursued the inquiry, which they acknowledged could have had the potential to “frustrate legitimate journalism.”

Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education, had asked Arday about allegations surrounding his academic record. Instead of treating the exchange as routine reporting, Met officers spent four months looking into a harassment complaint after the questions were put to the Cambridge academic.

The case cut across a wider dispute over Arday’s standing and the scrutiny around it. Arday, once described as Cambridge’s youngest Black professor, became the subject of claims about his academic qualifications, honorary appointments, sporting claims and fundraising claims. The University of Cambridge launched an investigation after new information emerged about his qualifications and honorary appointments, and Arday later resigned from the university with immediate effect. He has denied the plagiarism allegations.

The police admission has intensified concern over how law enforcement handles complaints that arise from reporting on powerful public figures and institutions. In this case, a journalist asking questions about a senior academic’s record ended up under police scrutiny himself, a sequence that has sharpened questions about safeguards for press freedom when reputational complaints are routed through the criminal justice system.