[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Lecturer charged over uni website in Australia

["Lachlan Brown" <lachlan@london.com>]

Academic Censorship: 

The website was moved to http://users.bigpond.net.au/pbs-pbac/site_suspension.htm




Lachlan Brown
http://third.net

Toronto 416 532 6777


-----Original Message-----
From: "ricardo dominguez" <rdom@thing.net>
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 10:08:21 -0400
To:  <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>
Subject: <nettime> Lecturer charged over uni website in Australia 


> Lecturer charged over uni website 
> 
> Matthew Spencer and Karen Dearne
> 10 July 2001 
> 
> AN academic website protesting against Federal Health Minister Michael
> Wooldridge's allegedly close relationship with the pharmaceutical industry
> has been shut down by La Trobe University.
> 
> The site, established in response to an ABC Four Corners program, claimed
> to explore whether Dr Wooldridge had allowed drug companies to hijack
> advice to the Government on which drugs to subsidise.
> 
> The site was taken down after a background article on it allegedly defamed
> Dr Wooldridge, when it referred to him as the "Minister for Pfizer" (a
> drug company).
> 
> Senior lecturer in the school of public health Ken Harvey, who administers
> the site with colleagues from RMIT and Monash universities, has been
> charged with serious misconduct by La Trobe. Neither RMIT nor Monash has
> taken any action.
> 
> Dr Harvey said the "Minister for Pfizer" jibe was coined by ALP health
> spokeswoman Jenny Macklin and linked to satirical material on the site
> that had been published in newspapers depicting Dr Wooldridge as being in
> bed with the health giant.
> 
> "I believe the sentence and the hyperlink, taken together, was legitimate
> previously published political comment or satire, and not defamation," Dr
> Harvey said. "This is where modern universities have got to -- the
> managers have taken over."
> 
> Rather than asking for the phrase to be removed from the site, La Trobe
> dean of health sciences Stephen Duckett spent three weeks seeking legal
> opinion before charging Dr Harvey with misconduct, Dr Harvey said.
> 
> "If Duckett was seriously trying to eliminate risk of liability, why the
> hell did he wait three weeks?" he said.
> 
> "He could have just got on the phone and asked for the phrase to be
> changed."
> 
> It is understood Professor Duckett became concerned about a possible
> defamation problem on June 15, one day after a letter by former
> Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) members Professor Don
> Birkett and Martyn Goddard was posted on the site.
> 
> The suspended site is now at
>  <A HREF="http://users.bigpond.net.au/Medreach/" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://users.bigpond.net.au/Medreach/</FONT></A> 
> 
> This report appears on australianIT.com.au.
> 
> 
> 
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