E-drug: Legal threats from AstraZeneca (cont'd)
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In response to David - Incorporation may protect some people from
some types of litigation in some countries. However in Australia
companies could sue both MaLAM Inc and me personally for
defamation. I think this also applies in many British Commonwealth
countries. I recommend that anyone who wants to do anything about
improving health care get quality legal advice regarding the laws in
their country rather than live under a false sense of security.
Fortunately Australian defamation law protects my freedom of speech
if I do the right thing eg make statements that are true and published
in the public interest or are clearly an opinion which is honestly held
and not motivated by malice. The law creates no limits for us because
that is what we want to do anyway.
It is worth noting that the only time MaLAM has been threatened was
when there was an unintended error of fact. Our willingness to publish
a correction (which we would have done even if we had not been
threatened) resolved the problem.
However a company could still decide to waste our time. One of our
protections from that is friendly relationships with many journalists.
To protect my wife and children my wife owns almost all of what
would normally be shared property. This has its own risks and I have
one friend who lost much property when his wife left him. I came
close to that myself a few years ago but fortunately we have been
able to solve our problems. I strongly recommend reading "Why
marriages succeed or fail" by John Gottman.
regards,
Peter
Dr Peter Mansfield
Director, MaLAM (Medical Lobby for Appropriate Marketing)
peter.mansfield@flinders.edu.au
www.camtech.net.au/malam
PO Box 172 Daw Pk SA 5041 Australia
ph/fax +61 8 83742245
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