Academic freedom

I mentioned that the CSIR in South Africa was having a conference last week, and bemoaned the lack of media publicity about it. I probably spoke to soon, as a media frenzy broke out shortly after that. One of the keynote speakers, Dr Anthony Turton, had his talk withdrawn, and was subsequently suspended by the CSIR pending an internal investigation. The content of his talk is still freely available off the CSIR webpage, so it is a bit baffling as to why the CSIR felt the need to withdraw the talk at the last minute, particularly as it apparently, according to the media, had been circulated for some time before the conference.

The official version is that there were some unsubstantiated facts in the talk, and that some of the figures used, which showed some of the victims of the recent xenophobic violence in South Africa, may have caused distress. Dr Turton was suspended due to his decision to talk directly to the media, rather then following internal CSIR channels. At this point it’s rather moot as to what the reasons are, as the CSIR is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. This has now been portrayed as a freedom of speech issue, and an example of censorship by the CSIR and government. My gut feeling as to the “unsubstantiated claims” that the CSIR was reluctant to have presented is the data showing the level of government funding, and staff employment at the CSIR. This work was published in the South African Journal of Science in 2006, and part of it was reproduced as Figure 1 in Dr Turtons talk. The drop in funding is actually incredibly scary. Science in SA is in a fairly precarious state as it is – if a council that should be the premier research institute is battling to attract funding, what hope is there for the rest of us scientists in this country?