Doctors attack Lancet owner's arms fair links - Guardian

Extract:

"A subsidiary of the publishers, Reed Exhibitions, runs six defence-related fairs around the world including the highly controversial Defence Services and Equipment International, supported by the Ministry of Defence, which will take place in London in September. Doctors are also complaining about the Shot - shooting, hunting, and outdoor trade - show in America for domestic weapons.

Scientists including Sir Michael Atiyah, former president of the Royal Society, have called for a boycott of their publications.

International academics led by Noam Chomsky have also lobbied the company in a letter, and last month the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust sold £2m worth of shares in the company after three years of attempting to persuade it to halt its association with the arms trade.

Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Michael Pelly, its international adviser, write today: "The Lancet is one of the most respected international medical journals and should not be linked to an industry involved in weapons designed to cause physical harm and death."

A second letter, from Peter Hall of Doctors for Human Rights, reads: "The Lancet, as the foremost medical journal on global health issues, engages with all threats to human longevity or mental and physical wellbeing ... it is thus shocking to hear that the publisher ... continues to align itself so supportively with the arms trade.""