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Letters to the Editor
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The Journal
An undemocratic stance by The Journal?
From Mr G. S. Phillips, MRPharmS, and others
In your editorial (PJ, 31 January, p108) you asked some searching questions
about the reasons why the Save Our Society group has taken legal action
to protect the members’ interests and halt the petition for a new
Royal Charter. You also added the pejorative comment: “The danger
is, of course, that the outcome of this process will be a disappointment
to everyone — except, of course, the lawyers involved.”
In a direct response to this editorial, we wrote a Broad spectrum article
which answered these legitimate questions and laid out the SOS group’s
view of how we have ended up where we are, and our view of the way forward.
You subsequently refused to publish our article despite it having been
cleared of any legal obstacles. A number of members have approached us
to ask why the SOS group has failed to respond to your editorial — could
it be, perhaps, that we have no answers?
In your reply to Douglas
Simpson last week (PJ, 28 February, p246) you
wrote: “nothing will be gained by publishing further comment ...
until the case is heard in the High Court.”
In these circumstances please allow me to assure the members that we
do, indeed, have answers to your questions. Members will have to draw
their own conclusions as to why you chose to raise the temperature of
the debate by asking questions and then bringing down the shutters with
such perfect timing.
Graham Phillips
Mark Koziol
Hassan Argomandkhah
Mike Williams
For the Save Our Society group
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Readers might like to know the reasons why we decided not to publish
the Broad spectrum article, submitted by the correspondents. Some of these
reasons were given in a e-mail sent to Graham Phillips on 19 February.
A section of the original article was cut because it was factually incorrect,
relating to the impact on the Council if all seven vacancies at the next election
were taken by SOS supporters.
The Journal’s own legal adviser asked us to make further amendments,
but pointed out that the only important information in the draft Broad spectrum
article,
in his view, was why the SOS group had decided to name the 17 defendants
in their action. This we carried as a news
item on 21 February (p206). It
is true
that,
at that stage, we were given the legal go-ahead.
However, on closer scrutiny of the rest of the article, we became increasingly
aware that a number of statements made by the authors summarising the events
to date were assertions based on opinion rather than fact. We sought legal
advice again. This time, our adviser warned us that if we continued to publish
letters
and articles about the issues, far from illuminating the members, we might
inadvertently mislead them. In these difficult circumstances, we have a duty
not to publish
material that has the potential to cause any misunderstandings which might
damage The Journal’s integrity — as we have no means of checking
the veracity of everything we are told.
It was for those reasons that the senior editorial staff took the collective
decision to introduce a moratorium
on the subject until the High Court hearing
takes place (PJ, 21 February, p204).
For the record the “searching questions” in the editorial of
31 January were rhetorical. They were addressed to all members of the Society
and were a
device to make them start thinking about what the future might hold. They
were
not specifically addressed to the SOS group.
Moreover, with two distinct parties arguing over the future direction of
the Society, one side is inevitably going to be unhappy with the outcome.
Ultimately,
any victory — if that is how it is perceived — may be pyrrhic. The
lawyers involved — who after all are doing a professional job for whichever
side they are advising — will benefit financially whatever the outcome.
We are at a loss to understand why this is “pejorative”.
— EDITOR
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal