Media News - Friday, May 30, 2008

Reed Elsevier makes its final farewell to arms

Reed Elsevier has finally stopped organising arms trade fairs - five months later than it promised shareholders and staff. The company's chief executive, Crispin Davis, said last summer that Reed would sever ties with the arms industry by the end of 2007 in response to pressure from anti-arms trade campaigners and writers at Reed Elsevier's scientific journals. The company said Thursday it had sold the DSEi, ITEC and LAAD defence exhibitions to Britain's largest independent exhibitions group, Clarion Events, for an undisclosed sum. Reed's decision last June to stop organising defence shows followed a long campaign over its involvement in several defence shows, including one in London. The Campaign Against Arms Trade had argued Reed's involvement in the arms trade was incompatible with its position as the number-one publisher of medical and science journals. Reed, which is selling its trade and specialist publications such as Farmers Weekly and New Scientist, had drawn particular criticism over its defence links from its top title, the Lancet. The medical journal's staff struggled to reconcile ties to the arms trade with a publication often covering the impact of war. (The Guardian)

Bookmark this : | Listen to this article | Sphere: Related Content

• Home |
• Seminars  |
• Events |
• Media Landscape |
• Newsroom|
• Media News|
• Resources

Terms of service and Privacy policy.

Copyright © 1992-2007 European Journalism Centre. All rights reserved.

Valid XHTML and CSS.

European Journalism Centre

Sonneville-lunet 10
6221KT Maastricht
The Netherlands

Tel. : +31 43 325 40 30
Fax : +32 2 400 42 20

E-mail: info[at]ejc.net