Fired editors get World Press Freedom awards

[CHIMO]

Two fired editors of the Canadian Medical Association Journal have been awarded the National Press Club of Canada's World Press Freedom award for 2006.

The awards will be presented Wednesday, which is World Press Freedom Day.

Former editor Dr. John Hoey and senior deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill were fired in late February after a run-in with the journal's publisher over an investigation which found some pharmacists across the country were invading women's privacy rights during sales of the emergency contraceptive drug known as Plan B.

"Editors should be free to express critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if those views might conflict with the commercial goals of the publisher," said Spencer Moore, chair of the organizing committee for the World Press Freedom Day activities at the National Press Club, which is based in Ottawa.

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