Wednesday 13 January 2010, The Frontline Club, London
The BBC College of Journalism ran this event, Reporting Science, in partnership with the Frontline Club.
The leaking of the notorious 'Climategate' emails just before the Copenhagen global warming summit, the resignation of Professor David Nutt as chairman of the Government's drugs advisory panel: two events that demonstrate how politicised science has become.
With so much confusion about such important and complex issues as the environment, swine flu and vaccinations, can journalists be looked to to provide objective analysis? Are science and environment journalists equipped to set out the parameters of the debate on global warming and other important issues, to allow the public to make up their own minds?
Or are they contributing to the distortion of debate, playing into the hands of the powerful lobbies and misrepresenting complex evidence for the sake of a good headline? What impact are English libel laws having on critical discussion of medical practice and scientific evidence, as the courts are used more and more to silence critics?
With: Michael Hanlon, Science Editor of the Daily Mail, Prof Mike Hulme of the University of East Anglia and Dr Beth Taylor of the Institute of Physics. Moderated by David Hayward, BBC College of Journalism.
