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Latest 21 August 2026

The Sunday Times is rewriting history

By Jo Maugham

There’s a rich and rather horrible irony in the fact of a newspaper, suggesting that being dishonest is inherent in Blackness, itself being caught out in dishonesty, says Jo Maugham

This is what The Times published on Sunday 16 August – two days after the death of our friend Professor Jason Arday.

This is astonishing stuff. That their enslavement taught Black people to be liars – and that Jason Arday may well have been a specialist in “black grifter chic.”  This is arguably the most revolting thing The Times – which has a long and inglorious history of racism, misogyny, ableism and transphobia – has ever published. 

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If that weren’t bad enough they are now rewriting history. 

Here’s what that same piece in The Times now says.

The “black grifter chic” line has gone — they no longer say he is guilty of it, instead calling it a “tragic denouement”. There are lots of other changes too, and the digital date now says 12 August.

The Times doesn’t acknowledge it changed the article after the death of our friend Professor Arday. So it’s not just deeply racist but deeply dishonest.

There’s a rich and rather horrible irony in the fact of a newspaper, reprehensibly suggesting that being dishonest is inherent in Blackness, itself being caught out in dishonesty.

If this doesn’t persuade you the press needs regulation nothing ever will. 

Please sign our open letter to the PM. You can access it here.

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Dr Jason Arday: Hounded to his death by the press

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Dr Jason Arday: Hounded to his death by the press