[Nettime-bold] Lecturer charged over uni website

["ricardo dominguez" <rdom@thing.net>]

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
http://users.bigpond.net.au/Medreach/ 

This report appears on australianIT.com.au.


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