It is important to investigate the alleged racist dimension of the media pile-on against Jason Arday, of course. But under no circumstances should this be used to obscure the fact that the media pile-on per se was also fuelled by journalists working for news outlets publicly regarded as anti-racist, including The Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph, among others.
Alan Rusbridger, the British journalist, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian (1995–2015), and currently editor-at-large of The New World, is one of the most influential figures in modern journalism. Writing in Prospect, he argued very clearly that the Jason Arday case was an example of a “media pile-on” and “death by a thousand headlines”, and that there is an important lesson to be learned about proportionality and humanity. We need to learn from what happened, correct course and ensure that it is not repeated.
In Jason Arday’s case, Newscord carried out a count and identified 249 articles published over 22 days, 188 of them after Arday said that he was stepping down from his position at Cambridge because both he and his concern for his family had reached the limits of what a person could endure. Rather than slowing down, the number of articles published increased after Arday spoke about his mental state and the pressure he was experiencing as a result of the media coverage. This therefore raises serious questions about actions taken in full knowledge of the pressure he had described, without sufficient regard for the international ethical principle of humanity or for proportionality, as Rusbridger has emphasised. Media outlets publicly regarded as both racist and anti-racist contributed to this deeply troubling course of events. Victims of media pile-on come from all races, genders and age groups.
For this reason, all journalists and media organisations that contributed to this media pile-on should publicly acknowledge and correct their role. Moreover, citizens have the right to demand redress in cases of media lynching and the development of legislation capable of preventing what amounts to an abuse of power by some media outlets and social media platforms from being disguised as freedom of expression.
Such abuse constitutes an attack on the separation of powers, an essential requirement of democracy, when some media outlets and social media actors seek to assume the role of the justice system and exert pressure on its decisions. This can have extremely serious consequences for people’s health, as the case of Jason Arday has so tragically brought into focus.
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