ASA bias against and censorship of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

The Advertising Standards Authority has since March 2011 been using complaints from a small number of anti-CAM lobbyists to heavily restrict information on the websites of complementary and alternative medical therapists.
The ASA guidelines for therapists amount to censorship as they do not accept divided medical evidence or the 2000 year historical use of therapies such as acupuncture. The ASA insist on placebo controlled RCTs published in peer reviewed journals and no split in medical opinion. This leads to extreme bias against CAM which does not have the resources and due to its holistic approach, placebo controlled trials e.g. for acupuncture may not be suitable. The ASA subjectively assess evidence, present a limited view of submitted evidence to the council, and ignore WHO and NICE guidelines. This is a huge threat to patient choice and the freedom of information available on the internet.