The police have been accused of press censorship over the case of the fantasist Cambridge professor Jason Arday. The Metropolitan Police investigated Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove after he was accused of harassment for emailing Prof Arday a series of legitimate questions about his academic record. Arday, once hailed as Cambridge’s superstar academic, is now at the centre of a plagiarism row and has resigned. The Free Speech Union’s General Secretary, Lord Young of Acton, has written to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley seeking an explanation as to why the Met investigated Mr Grove at all. On Wednesday, the Met informed Mr Grove that it would be taking no further action. In his letter, Lord Young said: “Telling a journalist to stop making lawful inquiries of a public figure under investigation for potential professional misconduct is not safeguarding – it is press censorship, delivered over the telephone by an officer who appears not to have realised he was speaking to a journalist doing his job until Mr Grove told him so.” The Met also passed on a complaint by Prof Arday about fellow academic Prof David Harris of Plymouth Marjon University to Devon and Cornwall Police, but that force rightly refused to investigate. As Lord Young asks, why was Devon and Cornwall Police able to dismiss the complaint so quickly, while the Met took four months? The Met has some serious questions to answer. Academic freedom and a free press are two central pillars of our society. Read more in The Telegraph 👇