Danish Doctor Fights For Freedom Of Speech In Court And Wins!

Source: http://www.mayday-info Released 3 October 2005

The Danish physician and health consultant, Carsten Vagn-Hansen, better known in Denmark as ‘the radio doctor’, received a fine of 10,000 DKr. last year for publicly writing about the health effects of dietary supplements, on the internet.  He refused to pay the fine and instead took The Food Administration to Court.  He won the case in September of this year.

Around 100 public listeners were in the Court room on Friday September 16 2005, to support the popular health speaker, whom – naturally – won the case. The opponent, The Food Region under the Food Administration, had the right to appeal the Court’s decision until September 30, but  this opportunity was not taken, so the case is therefore settled, and concludes that the Danish citizens may speak publicly about the health benefits of dietary supplements.   

The supplement legislation of the Danish Food Administration have since autumn 2004 dictated, that if a dietary supplement has a beneficial, preventive, or therapeutic effect, then it must be registered as a pharmaceutical product. The restrictive legislation of the Food Administration is adopting the coming Pharmaceutical Directive of the European Union, in ahead of time.  

The pharmaceutical legislation may cause huge problems in having access to harmless supplements that have a beneficial, preventive, or therapeutic effect.

The Food Administration had control of more than 150 websites in December 2004, that contained information about dietary supplements and alternative therapies, and the website of Carsten Vagn-Hansen was analysed by the Food Administration taskforce, The Supplement Group, after which the Food Region reported the doctor to the Medical Board for ‘illegal health claims.’ Carsten Vagn