[A-List] The Lancet vs. the arms trade

["Michael Keaney" <michael011@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Doctors attack Lancet owner's arms fair links

· Opposition led by Royal College of Physicians
· Journal publishes three pages of protest letters

Polly Curtis, health correspondent
Friday March 23, 2007
The Guardian

The publishers of The Lancet are under fire from leading doctors who are
complaining about their escalating involvement in arms fairs. Across
three pages of today's edition the medical journal publishes letters
from top doctors, led by the Royal College of Physicians, who say that
Reed Elsevier's commercial interest in the arms trade undermines the
journal's efforts to improve health worldwide.

The editors of the journal also call on their proprietor to drop its
work with the defence industry, claiming that the association is
damaging The Lancet's reputation. The Lancet's international advisory
board is now considering an "organised campaign" against its own
publisher.

A subsidiary of the publishers, Reed Exhibitions, runs six
defence-related fairs around the world including the highly
controversial Defence Services and Equipment International, supported by
the Ministry of Defence, which will take place in London in September.
Doctors are also complaining about the Shot - shooting, hunting, and
outdoor trade - show in America for domestic weapons.

Scientists including Sir Michael Atiyah, former president of the Royal
Society, have called for a boycott of their publications.

International academics led by Noam Chomsky have also lobbied the
company in a letter, and last month the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
sold £2m worth of shares in the company after three years of attempting
to persuade it to halt its association with the arms trade.

Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Michael
Pelly, its international adviser, write today: "The Lancet is one of the
most respected international medical journals and should not be linked
to an industry involved in weapons designed to cause physical harm and
death."

A second letter, from Peter Hall of Doctors for Human Rights, reads:
"The Lancet, as the foremost medical journal on global health issues,
engages with all threats to human longevity or mental and physical
wellbeing ... it is thus shocking to hear that the publisher ...
continues to align itself so supportively with the arms trade."

A reply, signed by "the editors of the Lancet", says they have been in
private discussions with their owners since the association was first
highlighted in 1995.

In a statement, Reed Elsevier said: "We accept that Reed Elsevier
publications may occasionally take editorial positions critical of their
owners, as is the case on this issue. We do not, however, see any
conflict between Reed Elsevier's connections with the scientific and
health communities and the legitimate defence industry."

Richard Horton, the Lancet's editor, said there was overwhelming
opposition to Reed Elsevier's position and that privately they were
looking closely at the issue. "They are listening," he said.

Voices of protest

Those writing letters/calling for boycott of Reed Elsevier

Ian Gilmore, president of Royal College of Physicians
Michael Pelly, RCP's international adviser
Sir Michael Atiyah, former president of Royal Society
Noam Chomsky, American academic
Peter Hall, chair, Doctors for Human Rights
Sir Andrew Haines, director, London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine
Marion Birch, director of global health charity Medact


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