Published 3 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2254
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2254

Editorials

Science in court

Does English libel law threaten scientific debate in health care?

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

Professor Sir Muir Gray, in his book Evidence-based Healthcare¹ tells the old joke about the epidemiologist up in court on a serious charge. "How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?" asks the judge. "I don’t know: I haven’t heard the evidence yet."

Recent events bring comedy, evidence, and law together as Ricky Gervais, Richard Dawkins, and Sir Iain Chalmers join together in a campaign that weds scientific rigour to free expression. On Wednesday of this week, leading academics, publishers, journalists, performers, clinicians, and scientists issued a public statement² backing science writer Simon Singh in his application to appeal against a libel judgment in the High Court. They fear that this judgment—if upheld—would have major implications for the ability of scientists, researchers, and other commentators freely to engage in robust criticism of scientific, and indeed purportedly scientific, work.

Singh, well-known for his books on Fermat’s last theorem and the big . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA

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