Muzzled Canadian Scientists Can Now Speak Freely With Public (thestar.com)

Layzej writes: Over the last 10 years, policies were put in place to prevent Canadian scientists from freely discussing taxpayer-funded science with the public. "media relations contacts" were enlisted to monitor and record interactions with the press. Interviews and often the questions to be asked were vetted ahead of time, and responses given by scientists frequently monitored or prohibited. Nature, one of the world's top science journals, called the policy a "Byzantine approach to the press, prioritizing message control and showing little understanding of the importance of the free flow of scientific knowledge."

The new government in Canada is lifting these restrictions. Scientists at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans were told Thursday they can now speak to the media. In a statement on Friday afternoon, Navdeep Bains, Canada's new minister of innovation, science and economic development said "Our government values science and will treat scientists with respect. This is why government scientists and experts will be able to speak freely about their work to the media and the public."

Comments

Re:Scientists and media both happy

[dryeo]

You would have liked Harpers small government. Things like shrinking Revenue Canada so all it can investigate is left wing non-profits, shrinking Election Canada so it can't even tell people where to vote accurately, little well encourage them, shrinking the military so all the moneys spent on killing brown people and buying the F35, a plane that's useless for the arctic, but no money for the injured vets returning. A huge propaganda department so continuous bombardment of ads telling us how great Harpers Government (not the Government of Canada) is doing and of course spying on the citizens as they might have the wrong politics.
Yes a small government that is big enough to go after its opponents and get their message out.
Oh also a government that can inherit a surplus and run a $56 billion deficit while telling us how fiscally responsible they are. At least they didn't waste those $2 billion on those welfare queen veterans and finally balanced the budget after 7 years of deficits.