Kristina Miller, a scientist at the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, was the lead author of a January 14, 2011 article in Science that suggested that viral infections may be linked to higher salmon mortality. But when the study came out, the government did not allow anyone to interview Miller, “citing a possible conflict of interest because of her scheduled testimony before a commission looking into the decline of sockeye salmon in [British Columbia’s] Fraser River.”
That comes from a story posted April 26th by CBC News, on a move by the Canadian Science Writers Association to “unmuzzle” government scientists. In an open letter to the government, the science writers said, “We urge you to free the scientists to speak. Take off the muzzles and eliminate the script writers and allow scientists — they do have PhDs after all — to speak for themselves.”
Kathryn O’Hara, the president of the Canadian science writers’ group, told the CBC, “In the last few years we’ve seen — under the Harper government, at least — a real concerted effort to keep controls on what the evidence is saying,”
In another episode highlighted by the CBC, Margaret Munro, a science writer with the Canadian news service Postmedia (and a board member of the Canadian Science Writers Association) sought data from Canadian radiation monitors following the Japanese earthquake and nuclear plant crisis. “Munro said Health Canada would not allow an interview with one of their experts responsible for the detectors. An Austrian team later released data from the entire global network of radiation monitors, including stations in Canada,” the CBC reported.
The government has so far not responded to the science writers’ letter.
Here’s a story American science writers might want to match. Then again–why worry? This could never happen in the U.S., right?
– Paul Raeburn
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