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Freedom of Information

Science Journals Announce Self-Censorship to Avert Terror Coverage of U.N

Editors of more than 20 leading scholarly science journals say they will censor articles containing information they think might be useful to bioterrorists.

The announcement is seen by some as marking a sea change in the scientific community, long a bastion of support for the free exchange of ideas and information. It raised the question of whether others in the news media might follow suit- or have already quietly begun informal self-censorship.

The group includes editors of Science, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, and Journal of the American Medical Association, which play key roles in sifting newsworthy scientific discoveries from the ore of mundane research and bringing them to the news media attention in language that can be understood by general audiences.

"We recognize that on occasion an editor may conclude that the potential harm of publication outweighs the potential societal benefits," the editors stated. "Under such circumstances, the paper should be modified or not be published."

But the editors’ statement begins by emphasizing that some of the same information that might be useful to terrorists is also key to developing effective defenses to disease and bioterrorism. It also emphasizes that the sharing and replication of the results of scientific experiments is the foundation of good science, which itself has to underlie any effective bioterrorism defense.

The editors made their announcement in mid-February at the Denver meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). It had grown out of a January 9, 2003 public forum sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences.

The statement was subsequently published, accompanied by editorials, in many of the journals involved. While many charge for online access, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences does not.

The "Journal Editors and Authors Group" that adopted the statement consists of about 32 people and includes representatives of professional societies, universities, the Energy Department, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Many of the journals involved already have in-house procedures for keeping truly dangerous information out of print, as do major nonspecialized news organizations. The joint statement leaves to each journal discretion over specific procedures to be followed.

For further information, see Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/100/4/1464