British Science Writer Simon Singh Forced to Quit Because of Libel Lawsuit

Simon Singh, a distinguished British science journalist who has been working in science media since 1990, was forced to pen his last column today, thanks to a libel lawsuit filed by the British Chiropractic Association after a column of his questioning the practices of chiropractors appeared in The Guardian in 2008.

According to a more recent Guardian article, one in four chiropractors in the UK are currently under investigation for “allegedly making misleading claims in advertisements” thanks to Singh’s original article, which highlighted the claims of some chiropractors that they could cure the likes of asthma and ear infections.

Even the UK’s General Chiropractic Council has disavowed those claims (warning: PDF), so why is Singh still embroiled in the costly, time-consuming legal battle? One simple twist of law: in UK libel lawsuits, the burden of proof falls on the defendant to prove that their claims are true, and not on the plaintiff to prove that they are false; in other words, if you’re accused of libel, you’re guilty until proven innocent: