ASA Connect

Dear All, 

The Acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Robin Mejia and ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein sent a letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Monday (i) expressing "deep concern over the legal proceedings against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and other senior ELSTAT officials"; and (ii) urging "the Government of Greece to unambiguously and publicly fulfill its Commitment on Confidence in Statistics ... by immediately taking all actions necessary to publicly defend against any efforts to undermine the credibility of the Greek statistics produced by Dr. Georgiou and his former colleagues so that all charges against these official statisticians are dropped." A news item is posted to the ASA website along with links to the ASA press release and this ASA blog entry. 

Early this morning we learned the unfortunate news that a Greek appeals court had upheld a lower court conviction of Dr. Georgiou for slander, sentencing him to one-year imprisonment. A German reporter relayed the following (as translated using the Google browser translation feature): "Apparently, it was not verified whether the previous Greek statistics were correct or not. The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make this statement in public, because they had been awe-inspiring." 

The ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights has been following this issue for several years now and is sponsoring a JSM session at which Dr. Georgiou is scheduled to speak this summer. 

Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------

Steve,

this is a very important matter, and I much appreciate that ASA stands up for the independence of official statistics in Europe. I hope Dr. Georgiou can make it to JSM.

Just a short comment regarding the latest court decision:
As impressive as these automatic translation algorithms are (thanks to statistics, of course), there's a mistake here: the German word "ehrabschneidend" does not mean "awe-inspiring" but, to the contrary, "defamatory". So the last sentence should read:

"The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make these statements in public, because they had been defamatory."


-Hans-



------------------------------
Hans Kiesl
Regensburg University of Applied Sciences
Germany
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2017 16:29
From: Steve Pierson
Subject: ASA Urges Greece to Drop Charges against Former Greek Statistician Andreas Georgiou, Defend Against Undermining Efforts

Dear All, 

The Acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Robin Mejia and ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein sent a letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Monday (i) expressing "deep concern over the legal proceedings against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and other senior ELSTAT officials"; and (ii) urging "the Government of Greece to unambiguously and publicly fulfill its Commitment on Confidence in Statistics ... by immediately taking all actions necessary to publicly defend against any efforts to undermine the credibility of the Greek statistics produced by Dr. Georgiou and his former colleagues so that all charges against these official statisticians are dropped." A news item is posted to the ASA website along with links to the ASA press release and this ASA blog entry. 

Early this morning we learned the unfortunate news that a Greek appeals court had upheld a lower court conviction of Dr. Georgiou for slander, sentencing him to one-year imprisonment. A German reporter relayed the following (as translated using the Google browser translation feature): "Apparently, it was not verified whether the previous Greek statistics were correct or not. The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make this statement in public, because they had been awe-inspiring." 

The ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights has been following this issue for several years now and is sponsoring a JSM session at which Dr. Georgiou is scheduled to speak this summer. 

Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------

Dear Hans,

Thank you very much for providing this correction.

Since I'm writing, I see that I omitted the URL so let me provide that now: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/eurokrise/griechenland/griechenland-verurteilt-chefstatiker-andreas-georgiuo-zu-haft-14948460.html. 

Since I posted the blog, Der Spiegel has posted a story: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/griechenland-ex-chefstatistiker-andreas-georgiou-verurteilt-a-1141079.html. 

Best,
Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-30-2017 03:34
From: Hans Kiesl
Subject: ASA Urges Greece to Drop Charges against Former Greek Statistician Andreas Georgiou, Defend Against Undermining Efforts

Steve,

this is a very important matter, and I much appreciate that ASA stands up for the independence of official statistics in Europe. I hope Dr. Georgiou can make it to JSM.

Just a short comment regarding the latest court decision:

A German reporter relayed the following (as translated using the Google browser translation feature): "Apparently, it was not verified whether the previous Greek statistics were correct or not. The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make this statement in public, because they had been awe-inspiring."

Steve Pierson,  03-29-2017 16:29

As impressive as these automatic translation algorithms are (thanks to statistics, of course), there's a mistake here: the German word "ehrabschneidend" does not mean "awe-inspiring" but, to the contrary, "defamatory". So the last sentence should read:

"The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make these statements in public, because they had been defamatory."


-Hans-



------------------------------
Hans Kiesl
Regensburg University of Applied Sciences
Germany
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2017 16:29
From: Steve Pierson
Subject: ASA Urges Greece to Drop Charges against Former Greek Statistician Andreas Georgiou, Defend Against Undermining Efforts

Dear All, 

The Acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Robin Mejia and ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein sent a letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Monday (i) expressing "deep concern over the legal proceedings against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and other senior ELSTAT officials"; and (ii) urging "the Government of Greece to unambiguously and publicly fulfill its Commitment on Confidence in Statistics ... by immediately taking all actions necessary to publicly defend against any efforts to undermine the credibility of the Greek statistics produced by Dr. Georgiou and his former colleagues so that all charges against these official statisticians are dropped." A news item is posted to the ASA website along with links to the ASA press release and this ASA blog entry. 

Early this morning we learned the unfortunate news that a Greek appeals court had upheld a lower court conviction of Dr. Georgiou for slander, sentencing him to one-year imprisonment. A German reporter relayed the following (as translated using the Google browser translation feature): "Apparently, it was not verified whether the previous Greek statistics were correct or not. The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make this statement in public, because they had been awe-inspiring." 

The ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights has been following this issue for several years now and is sponsoring a JSM session at which Dr. Georgiou is scheduled to speak this summer. 

Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------

Dear All, 

Robin Mejia, acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, Ron Wasserstein, and I have posted a new blog entry on the the Andreas Georgiou case: Statistician Prosecuted: Latest Developments in Andreas Georgiou Case. We'd appreciate any help sharing the updates that include a trial that was started on May 29 and then suspended and, on May 26, a second acquittal on complicity against the state. 

Thank you,
Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2017 16:29
From: Steve Pierson
Subject: ASA Urges Greece to Drop Charges against Former Greek Statistician Andreas Georgiou, Defend Against Undermining Efforts

Dear All, 

The Acting Chair of the ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights Robin Mejia and ASA Executive Director Ron Wasserstein sent a letter to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Monday (i) expressing "deep concern over the legal proceedings against Andreas Georgiou, the former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), and other senior ELSTAT officials"; and (ii) urging "the Government of Greece to unambiguously and publicly fulfill its Commitment on Confidence in Statistics ... by immediately taking all actions necessary to publicly defend against any efforts to undermine the credibility of the Greek statistics produced by Dr. Georgiou and his former colleagues so that all charges against these official statisticians are dropped." A news item is posted to the ASA website along with links to the ASA press release and this ASA blog entry. 

Early this morning we learned the unfortunate news that a Greek appeals court had upheld a lower court conviction of Dr. Georgiou for slander, sentencing him to one-year imprisonment. A German reporter relayed the following (as translated using the Google browser translation feature): "Apparently, it was not verified whether the previous Greek statistics were correct or not. The judges only decided that Georgiou was not allowed to make this statement in public, because they had been awe-inspiring." 

The ASA Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights has been following this issue for several years now and is sponsoring a JSM session at which Dr. Georgiou is scheduled to speak this summer. 

Steve

------------------------------
Steve Pierson
Director of Science Policy
American Statistical Association
------------------------------