Lancet criticises its owner for hosting international arms fair

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7517.591-a

BMJ 2005;331:591 (17 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7517.591-a

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Lancet criticises its owner for hosting international arms fair

Owen Dyer

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Lancet has criticised its owner and publisher, Reed Elsevier,for involvement in the global arms trade. Reed Elsevier ownsthe company Spearhead Exhibitions, which this week hosted thedefence systems and equipment international (DSEi) exhibition,one of the largest military exhibitions in the world, in London.

Workers lift a dummy missile into placeat this week's DSEi arms fair, which the Lancet said damagedReed Elsevier's reputation

PETER MACDIARMID/GETTY IMAGES

In an editorial published last week the Lancet said that it"has a long record of drawing attention to the adverse healthconsequences of war and violence" and that the editors "rejectcompletely any perceived connection between the journal andthe arms trade, no matter how tangential it might be" ( Lancet 2005;366: 868[Medline]).

But the publisher's presence in the arms industry, the editorsargue, "self-evidently damages its reputation as a health-sciencepublisher... we . . . [Full text of this article]

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