Tuesday, June 05, 2007

How does a medical journal manage to get sued for libel?

By not being evidence based in its reporting. It apparently happened to the British Medical Journal (BMJ). BMJ settled with Dr. Matthias Rath for £100,000 under the offer of amends procedure. The libel action was over a BMJ news story alleging that Dr. Rath improperly pressured parents to refuse treatment for a 9 year old boy, resulting in his death.

What’s ironic is that this is the second time BMJ, widely regarded as a scholarly journal and a champion of evidence based medicine, has been called out for faulty reporting. The other instance occurred in 2005 when a BMJ news story alleged that damaging drug company documents “went missing” in a product liability case. Following a complaint from the company BMJ, after investigating the matter, issued a correction and apology.

Via Kevin M.D.

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