Fiona Fox, the founding director of the Science Media Centre, has recently published her book “Beyond the Hype“.
In her book, the CEO of the Science Media Centre states “there are certain areas of science where it is hard to find scientists who are truly independent and can be said to have no conflict of interests” and that “many experts have either worked for, or had their research funded by industry during some part of their careers”.
The CEO of the Science Media Centre concludes:
Comment:
It is disappointing to find that a book on science confines any discussion of ‘disinterestedness’ to a brief and unreferenced paragraph.
For over a decade I have campaigned for the introduction of Sunshine legislation. My understanding is that the Science Media Centre is not without its own competing interests. Thankfully it is still “legitimate” to ask about this!
October 2018: A reply from the Science Media Centre:
From: Science Media Centre Sent: 18 October 2018 To: Dr Peter J Gordon Subject: RE: Sunshine legislation Thank you for your email. The Science Media Centre is a press office embedded within the mainstream scientific community; we focus on the news media and encouraging scientists and journalists to work together. Our declaration of interests policy is based on those of others in the community. Should members of the scientific community change their policies then we would adapt accordingly.