Simon Singh
May. 18th, 2009 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mymatedave10I've recently come home from an event in the Pub Penderel's Oak in Holborn where I normally go to the Skeptics in the Pub meetings. The regular meeting has been shifted to wednesday because one of Britain's best science writers has recently been in legal trouble.
Thanks to the ludicrous libel laws in England, the accused is the one who has to prove themselves innocent. This has led to what called libel tourism, where a saudi prince can accuse an american writer of libel and have it judged under our law instead of America's because they sold some books here. Anyway, Simon Singh wrote an article in the Guardian newspaper nearly a year ago about the British Chriropratic Association, calling their claims that chiropractics can cure childhood illnesses such as colic "bogus".
And instead of disputing his claims in a peer reviewed scientific magazine or even printing a rebuttal showing evidence, they sued him for libel. The presiding judge, Justice Eady has decided to ignore the dictionary meaning of bogus and make one up on his own, saying that Singh was accusing them of fraud when he was doing nothing of the sort, something that he would know if he read the article in question.
At this splendiforous event was such people as the comedian Dave Gorman, journalist Nick Cohen, scientific campaigner and Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris and introducing the man himself, Professor Brian Cox who in his talks about the Large Hadron Collider said that:
"Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat.”
After a short introduction, Brian turned the floor over to Simon Singh who talked for a while about the problems of his case and why he was considering appealing against the preliminary hearing. After a short toilet and beer break, we were in a pub, the floor was open to Q&A's.
More information and links can be found here.
Thanks to the ludicrous libel laws in England, the accused is the one who has to prove themselves innocent. This has led to what called libel tourism, where a saudi prince can accuse an american writer of libel and have it judged under our law instead of America's because they sold some books here. Anyway, Simon Singh wrote an article in the Guardian newspaper nearly a year ago about the British Chriropratic Association, calling their claims that chiropractics can cure childhood illnesses such as colic "bogus".
And instead of disputing his claims in a peer reviewed scientific magazine or even printing a rebuttal showing evidence, they sued him for libel. The presiding judge, Justice Eady has decided to ignore the dictionary meaning of bogus and make one up on his own, saying that Singh was accusing them of fraud when he was doing nothing of the sort, something that he would know if he read the article in question.
At this splendiforous event was such people as the comedian Dave Gorman, journalist Nick Cohen, scientific campaigner and Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris and introducing the man himself, Professor Brian Cox who in his talks about the Large Hadron Collider said that:
"Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twat.”
After a short introduction, Brian turned the floor over to Simon Singh who talked for a while about the problems of his case and why he was considering appealing against the preliminary hearing. After a short toilet and beer break, we were in a pub, the floor was open to Q&A's.
More information and links can be found here.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-19 12:13 pm (UTC)