Merlin denies Scientology charge
19.11.08 | Victoria Gallagher
Merlin, the Irish-based publisher of The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology, which was pulled from Amazon.co.uk for including "defamatory" content, has "emphatically denied" the allegations. Aoife Barrett, editorial director at Merlin, said the claim was "vexatious".
Amazon.co.uk removed the title from sale last week. The online retailer said: "Unfortunately, we have had to withdraw The Complex by John Duignan in the UK because we received a specific allegation that a passage in the book is defamatory regarding an individual named in the book. In circumstances such as these, UK law gives us no choice but to remove the title from our catalogue."
Other UK bookstores, including Waterstones, Borders and WH Smiths are also believed to have been warned off stocking the title. The title is however still available at bookshops in Ireland and for sale from Amazon.com, where it is currently out of stock.
Merlin said it "would like to sell international rights to The Complex particularly in the US and the UK and are in negotiations with publishers in both countries".
Comments on this article
By KeeKee
scientology proves once again that it will go out of its way to silence and harass its critics. Not a very smart move by scientology as all they have done is given the book free publicity. In Merlin's complete press release they inform the public that Amazon has not contacted them at all. Shame on Amazon for not contacting Merlin press - interesting how Amazon met with Tom Cruise recently though. Will never buy anything from Amazon again!19 Nov 08 16:01
By Hartley Patterson
Amazon.co.uk are being economical with the truth. They can legally sell the book in the UK unless and until someone takes someone else to court to prevent such sales. They had a clear choice - to sell and risk possible legal action or to not sell and risk bad publicity by claiming free speech is 'not their problem'.20 Nov 08 13:27
By Mary McConnell
So glad to see this update as I was wondering what happened. I hope to see it selling here in the USA soon. It's a must-read book that the cult is trying to suppress. Kudos to Ireland for making it available during this disruption!21 Nov 08 04:09
