DISCLAIMER: This article is NOT an advertisement for “black salve”, nor should it be construed as promoting the use of “black salve”.
We tend to believe that in Australia, despite excessive taxation, nanny state legislation, over-regulation and a spiraling cost of living, we at least have free speech, right?
At least we are not like China where the government has a list of banned topics that cannot be discussed publicly, right?
Wrong!
Our government, via a maze of bureaucracies, can and does prohibit discussion, even in a purely journalistic way, about alternative health products and therapies which are not “approved” by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). TGA (the equivalent of the FDA in the US) has wide ranging powers to prevent the sale, advertising and apparently even the discussion of non-approved health products, one of which is the purported cancer cure known as “black salve”.
My guest today in the 2nd hour is Leon Pittard, host of Fair Dinkum Radio, who has been served with a complaint from the TGA due to an interview he conducted with Meryl Dorey, Director of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), a non-profit organisation which helps people make informed decisions about vaccines.
The AVN has been targeted for several years by pro-vaccine lobbyists whose website, “Stop the AVN“, declares that “the anti-vaccination propaganda issued by the AVN and its President, Meryl Dorey, is a menace to public health”. This group has been behind complaints against the AVN which were upheld by another government organisation, the “Health Care Complaints Commission” (HCCC).
More recently, the AVN was ordered to stop selling a DVD titled “One Answer to Cancer,” which promotes the use of an herbal remedy known as “black salve“. Despite complying with the demand to remove the DVD from sale on their website, the AVN and Leon Pittard are now being harassed simply for talking about the subject during an interview on Fair Dinkum Radio on on 5 May 2012.
Leon Pittard has documented the entire saga in his article and press release, “Australian thought police target free speech“.
Next week we will be interviewing Meryl Dorey to get her perspective on this deeply troubling chain of events.
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