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Over at Gareth Renowden’ s Hot Topic blog the ‘Climate cranks claim a scalp‘ post has been removed with the following disclaimer:

This post removed at the request of The Listener and their friends at Bell Gully.

He provides some explanation here and here.

The story has created quite a little storm in the blog sphere including a couple of reproductions (PDF) of the offending article, so as is often the case with such heavy handed slaps the story just gets bigger. When will they learn??

Steven Price gives a good summary of the situation in Media Law Journal:

Some context: HotTopic - a serious blog about global warming - questioned the Listener’s removal of Dave Hansford as its Ecologic columnist. The blogger wondered whether Hansford’s removal had anything to do with his recent column criticising climate change sceptics. The post is largely a model of fairness. It sets out the background facts. It raises questions rather than making allegations. It even allows that the Listener’s editor may have made the change for other reasons. It plainly expresses comment. Readers can judge for themselves what to think. Bloody hell: how many blog posts merit that accolade? (For my part, I doubt Hansford was removed because of the column. The blog post is temperate enough that others have reached that view too).

See also Pomeke, Science Blogs and Public address.