JRCT adds to pressure on Reed Elsevier to withdraw from arms fairs

Reed Elsevier announced in June that it would sever its ties with arms fairs, bowing to pressure which included complaints from customers, shareholders and academics writing for its titles. Reed has endured a long campaign over its involvement in five defence shows, including one in London, Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), and now plans to pull out of the industry by the end of this year.

Protests have included a weekly vigil by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade outside Reed's London headquarters, and a public letter from writers including J M Coetzee, Ian McEwan and Arabella Weir, published to coincide with last year’s London Book Fair, organized by Reed. In the letter they said that they were appalled that their trade should be ‘commercially connected to one which exacerbates insecurity and repression’.

In addition, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) has engaged for three years with Reed Elsevier about its arms trade involvement, which it describes as ‘deeply unethical and irredeemably corrupt’, culminating this year in the sale of its £2 million stake in the business because of concerns that Reed was increasing its involvement in arms fairs (see Alliance, March 2007). According to Reed chief executive Sir Crispin Davis, the concerns expressed ‘led us to conclude that the defence shows are no longer compatible with Reed Elsevier's position as a leading publisher of scientific, medical, legal and business content’.

Reed said its plans to pull out of the sector by the end of the year were subject to honouring its obligations to partners and customers and that this month’s DSEi fair in London would go ahead as planned. Reed had previously maintained that it viewed the defence industry as ‘necessary to the preservation of freedom and national security’ and that its exhibitions assisted in ensuring there is a regulated market.

Source
The Guardian, 2 June 2007