Medical Journal pulls article

A research paper on junk food advertising was pulled from the New Zealand Medical Journal just hours before it was due to be published because of inaccuracies in the data.

On Thursday, media outlets, including The Press, received an embargoed copy of the articles that would be published in the journal yesterday.

One article was titled ‘‘Getting it wrong for children’’: self-regulation of unhealthy food advertising on New Zealand television, authored by Otago University researchers Gabrielle Jenkin, Moira Smith, and Louise Signal.

The Press wrote a story about the peer-reviewed article, which raised issues about self regulation in the television advertising industry regarding advertising unhealthy food to children.

The story was scheduled for publication yesterday morning.

At 10.40pm on Thursday, the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA), which publishes the journal, issued a notice to media that the article would be withdrawn from the publication.

An NZMA spokeswoman said some of the data was inaccurate, but declined to comment further.

The spokeswoman said Mediaworks, which owns TV3, had since been in contact with the NZMA.

The article contained a false statement that TV3 had advertised eight commercials for unhealthy food during screenings of children’s programmes in 2012, in breach of the Advertising Standards Authority code.

One recommendation in the article was that an independent party should monitor food advertising, because the industry was getting away with breaches.

A Mediaworks spokesman said the channel did not broadcast children’s shows at the time described in the article, between 3pm and 4.30pm on weekdays.

The Press understands that there were no other inaccuracies in the data or conclusions of the article.

The notice issued by NZMA said the article might be published at a later date.