Downing Street Says » Professor David King

» Monday, March 8, 2004

Professor David King

Asked for a reaction to reports, following the publication of a confidential memo, that the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir David King, had been gagged by Downing Street following his comments in which he had sought to categorise global warming and international terrorism, the PMOS referred journalists to the transcript of the press briefing he had given on 9 January 2004 when he had said that Professor King had been expressing his own view, but that we wouldn’t necessarily rank terrorism and global warming inasmuch as they were both serious problems and both merited a different response. The Government was committed to dealing with both of them. The fact that there was communication within Government shouldn’t come as any great surprise. It was perfectly possible for different parts of Government to communicate with each other without it being seen as ‘gagging’ someone or showing disrespect to a distinguished member of the scientific community and, indeed, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser – somebody whom the Prime Minister and Ministers held in high regard. The PMOS also took the opportunity to point out that Professor King had held a press conference at the conference in Seattle, where the memo had reportedly been discovered, with an unrestricted Q&A.

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