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    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Censored science

    Can South Africa afford the luxury of politically motivated censorship of our scientific community? Dr Anthony Turton has been suspended by the CSIR and prevented from delivering a paper on water issues in South Africa to a CSIR conference. To me, that paper could be the Silent Spring of the SA scientific community.

    Dr Turton is a member of the CSIR's natural resource and environment unit and was due to deliver a keynote address on water quality at the CSIR's "Science Real and Relevant" conference on Tuesday 18th November 2008. On Monday, Turton was told he could not give the address.

    "I was told it had been pulled, and I was instructed not to be on the premises. I was given three different reasons by three different people," Turton said.

    What he intended to present was Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-Makers Need to Know About and How the CSIR Should Respond, a thought provoking read on a number of levels that certainly seems to be in line with the theme of the conference.

    Melanie Gosling of the Cape Times reported this as the CSIR response:
    Asked to comment, the CSIR said it acknowledged South Africa's water quality problems were of national importance and it had invested "significant resources" to address them.

    Turton's address was withdrawn because certain statements "could not be sufficiently substantiated", and because he had shown burning victims, which could offend sensitive people.

    The CSIR allowed the paper to be included "as part of the conference proceedings".

    Turton had included images of xenophobic violence in the paper with the caption asking if "this type of anger could be unleashed in response to perceptions of deteriorating public health as a result of declining water quality?"
    On 21st November Dr Turton was suspended from the CSIR for "bringing the CSIR into disrepute and failing to obey a lawful instruction," and instructed to vacate the premises.

    Let's be honest here - the problem with this paper is not that it contains pictures the audience couldn't handle, or that it lacks substance. It quite simply doesn't comply with the current regime's preferred view of things.

    Possibly more disturbing than the paper's underlying theme that there needs to be much more investment in our technology capacity is the CSIR's message that politics is more important than the science.
    Last edited by Dave A; 30-Nov-08 at 07:25 PM.

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