Science journo quits writing to fight chiropractic libel suit.
Ok, this story is just kind of unfortunate. According to this Ars Technica story, Simon Singh, whose Fermat’s Last Theorem I remember reading and enjoying back in high school, is apparently quitting his job at the Guardian in order to defend himself against a libel suit by the British Chiropractic Association.
It’s a long story, and the article does a good job of giving the background – Chiropractors in Britain have apparently made unproven claims about their curative powers; Simon Singh called them “bogus” in a column, and Britain’s libel laws have ensured that he’s quitting to spend all his time fighting the legal battle.
There’s all kinds of issues involved to dig deeper into, for more see some of the links from the Ars Technica article and Simon’s Guardian column.
There’s the issue of the Chiropractor Association’s claims, some of which bloggers have helped to cast doubt upon or disprove.
And there’s Britain’s libel laws, which are apparently overly stringent, and many people seem to be asking for reform – I can see their argument, it’s hard to be a good science journalist if you can’t question bad science…
Good luck to Simon, and I hope he’s able to fight off the libel suit and resume writing sooner rather than later! (And hopefully the chiropractors no longer make unproven claims and the libel laws are reformed, but maybe that’s hoping for too much…)
[Via Ars Technica]
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