To clarify the situation to those expecting an ASA report on a Nestlé advertisement to be published on 10th February, Baby Milk Action requested a statement from the ASA. The ASA sent the following letter, dated 28th January 1999 (for further information contact Chris Reed on +44 (0) 171 436 1698). We reproduce the letter in its entirety:

Mike Brady
Campaigns and Networking Coordinator
Baby Milk Action
23 St Andrew's Street
Cambridge
CB2 3AX

28 January 1999

Dear Mike

Roger Wisbey [Director of Investigations] has asked me to respond to your fax of today's date.

The ASA will indeed inform enquirers that, to date, Baby Milk Action has acted in good faith throughout their dealings with the media in respect of the Nestlé case. This letter is not confidential and you may wish to copy it to journalists [Mr. Reed suggested in a telephone conversation that we post it on our web site].

Baby Milk Action contacted the ASA Press Office out of courtesy to ask the ASA to look over two press releases they intended to send out (under a previously agreed embargo of 10 February 1999) to ensure they contained no factural errors relating to the ASA's investigation.

As is standard practice, to ensure that ASA adjudications are not presented in a selective or out-of-context manner, the ASA requested that Baby Milk Action attach a full copy of the ASA adjudication with any press release reporting the ASA's adjudication, which Baby Milk Action agreed to do.

At the time of the initial discussions between Baby Milk Action and the ASA Press Office the receipt of a formal appeal could not have been predicted by the ASA; both organisations acted in good faith, expecting the publication of the adjudication in the ASA's Monthly Report (i.e. the embargo date) to be 10 February.

Due to an appeal being received from Nestlé on this complex investigation, the ASA will now not publish its adjudication on 10 February.

The ASA cannot pre-judge an appeal. Therefore it is not possible to confirm whether or not the adjudication will be published in the form earlier advised. Until it is published the ASA will not be able to comment in detail on the Nestlé case.

In the interests of clarity I must point out that the ASA at no stage 'approved' your release - the content is entirely of your own choosing. However, we did agree that you could send it out under a very clear embargo of 10 February 1999, which you did. Similarly, we didn't give you 'permission' to send it out - it is your prerogative to publicise our decision in the way you see fit, as long as it is accurately reported, which is why, when we originally spoke I asked for the full adjudication to be attached, and you did so.

You are certainly at libery to make journalists aware of the facts (above), but the lack of ASA input i.e. no interviews or explicit comments on the case may well 'kill' the story substantially. This should be considered against the willingness with which the ASA would respond to media enquiries upon conclusion and publication of our decision, in the same way that we would offer comments on any of our published adjudications.

Yours sincerely

Chris Reed
External Affairs Manager