PEN Canada concerned by silencing of publicly funded scientists

TORONTO, April 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Today PEN Canada voiced concerns that
the federal government’s restrictions on media access to publicly
funded scientists have become a serious infringement on the right to
freedom of expression in Canada.

Several journalists and organizations, including the Canadian Science
Writers Association (CSWA) and L’Association des communicateurs
scientifiques du Québec (ACS), have repeatedly questioned the Canadian
government’s “muzzling” of publicly funded scientists when their
findings appear to cause embarrassment, or to recommend courses of
action contrary to current policy. In 2007 the federal government
introduced rules to control interviews with Environment Canada
scientists. These rules have resulted in an 80 percent drop in media
coverage of climate change science. 

Recent instances of government muzzling include:

        --  the Fisheries Department's prohibition against Dr. Kristi
            Miller speaking to the press, after Miller published a report
            that suggested a virus from contaminated farm fish may have
            caused the 2009 collapse of Fraser River sockeye.
        --  Environment Canada's decision to cancel press interviews with
            an employee whose report concluded that toxic air emissions in
            the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are unregulated by
            land-use permits.
        --  Environment Canada's decision to prevent an employee talking to
            the press after a report  he authored described a large hole in
            the ozone layer above the Arctic

“The federal government is obliged to judge publicly funded science on
the quality of its evidence and analysis,” said Philip Slayton, Chair
of PEN Canada’s National Affairs Committee, “not on whether its
findings serve economic or political interests. We cannot expect
Canadian scientists to work productively for the greater good at home,
or exert Canadian influence abroad, if their work is routinely
subordinated to the demands of political messaging. If this is not the
case, the government should offer a plausible explanation for its
actions.”

PEN Canada supports the calls of the CSWA, ACS and other concerned
groups for Canadian scientists to be allowed to communicate freely with
the media and urges the federal government to take steps to ensure that
any restraints on the free flow of scientific information are
lifted immediately. 

PEN Canada fights censorship and defends the right to freedom of
expression.

SOURCE PEN Canada