in the federation’s development. Libel case against Simon Singh In July 2008, the BCA issued libel proceedings against Simon Singh, who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics, for writing in The Guardian newspaper and website that the association was promoting 'bogus treatments'. In his article, Singh questioned the BCA's claims that chiropractic treatment "can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying". The BCA asked Singh to retract his allegations because they were "factually wrong, defamatory and damaging to the BCA’s reputation". After the BCA won a preliminary court ruling in May 2009, Singh announced in June 2009 that he intended to appeal against the ruling, and on 14 October 2009 Singh was granted leave to appeal. On 29 October 2009, Times Higher Education reported that Singh had won the right to appeal against the preliminary ruling on "meaning" in the case. Singh responded to the judgement that it was the "best possible result" but warned that he would try not to get his hopes up. "We have only won leave to appeal. Now we must convince the Court of Appeal on the issue of meaning. There is a long battle ahead." In April 2010, Singh won his court appeal for the right to rely on the defence of fair comment. An editorial in Nature commented on the case, and stated that although the BCA has said that it believes in open discussions about the evidence base for chiropractic treatments and beliefs, it instead appears to many observers that the association is trying to use libel laws to suppress debate. Sense about Science has been a major supporter of Singh during this case and editorials in BMJ argued that the lawsuit highlights the chilling effects of English libel law on scientific discourse, and free speech. The backlash to the BCA's libel case has resulted in a lot of coverage in both skeptical and mainstream media, and as such is considered by some to be an example of the Streisand effect. The publicity produced by the BCA's libel action has led to formal complaints of false advertising being made against more than 500 individual chiropractors within one 24-hour period, when these cases were brought for consideration by the General Chiropractic Council, however, 92% were dismissed with "no case to answer". On 1 April 2010, Singh won a crucial appeal that