In a wonderful decision delivered at 9.30 this morning the three most senior judges in the country have overturned the previous ruling on meaning in the case of Simon Singh vs the British Chiropractic Association.
Mr Justice Eady had ruled that Simon's use of the word 'bogus' was a statement of fact and inferred that the BCA was knowingly promoting ineffective treatments. Today it has been decided that he 'erred in his approach' and that it was clearly an opinion piece supported by evidence. This allows Simon to use the far more reasonable 'fair comment' defence rather than having to prove that the BCA were knowingly dishonest. The BCA have already produced a statement available from their website. It remains to be seen whether or not they have any appetite to persue their case when faced with such a defence.
I certainly know of chiropracters who claim to cure Tinnitus, as well as practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Whilst I'd love to see their evidence I'd rather not go through a libel case. I may well look into a literature review in the future with CAREFUL commentary....
Of course this is only the beginning of the reform of our frankly ridiculous UK libel laws but there are apparently strong hints within today's ruling that change may be starting to happen.
Congratulations to Simon on this historic victory for science and common sense.
-- Post From My iPhone
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment