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NAME FOR BBS: Scientology's Current Target: Reader's Digest by
Brian Steffens

SORT TO: MEDIA

CONTRIBUTOR: IMHO-Lawrence Wollersheim

LOC. OF ORIG: Fom The Quill, November-December 1991, p.39



NOTES:







UPDATED ON:

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Scientology's Current Target: Reader's Digest

by Brian Steffens, from The Quill, November-December 1991, p.39



The Church of Scientology attempted to prohibit publication of
Reader Digest's October issue in Switzerland, France, Italy, the
Netherlands, and Germany.

At issue: a condensed reprint of Richard Behar's Time magazine
article on the church entitled "Scientology: A Dangerous Cult
Goes Mainstream."

A magazine spokeswoman said only the court in Lausanne,
Switzerland, granted a temporary injunction prohibiting
publication. She said the magazine began distribution to
subscribers September 26, despite the court order. Copies of the
magazine were not available for newsstand sale.

The church quickly followed with a criminal complaint, according
to the Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Intemational Church
of Scientology. The publisher reports the Swiss German edition
has 243,906 subscribers and 11,824 newsstand sales, the Swiss
French edition 82,023 subscribers and 3,023 newsstand sales.

According to the magazine:

 The Lausanne court scheduled a hearing for November 11. A
second Swiss court, in Zurich, dismissed its case October 15.

 In early October, a German court and a French court dismissed
their cases. A Netherlands court threw out its case and ordered
the Scientologists to pay the magazine's legal costs. A court in
Milan, Italy, transferred its case to Vernona where it was
dismissed.

 Versions of the article appeared simultaneously in virtually
all 40 of the magazine's editions in 16 languages, reaching more
than 100 million readers. U.S. circulalion is 16.25 million;
international is 12.5 million.

In a memo to employees, Editor-in Chief Kenneth Y. Tomlinson
said, "The Church of Scientology . . . asked the Civil Court in
Lausanne . . . to prohibit publication . . . We believe the
court's order violates the rights of free press and free speech
protected by the Swiss Constitution... The central issue is
censorship. We cannot _we will not_allow anyone in Switzerland
or anywhere else in the world to restrict our right to publish.
As a global publisher, that right matters above all else."

Jentzsch told The QUILL that Behar's original story, and the
condensed version, were "libelous and slanderous" to the church
and its members. He called Reader'sDigest's publication of the
story a "definite, vicious attempt to attack the church."

Jentzsch claims a hidden agenda on the part of both Behar and
Reader's Digest, alleging a senior editor at Readers Digest,
Eugene H. Methvin, told Jentzsch of the magazine's intent to
bring down the church."

"I never said that," Methvin responds. The Washington-based
editor claims to have had no role in the republication of
Behar's story, that the New York office handled Behar's story.
"Jentzsch called while I was on deadline on another story,
finishing a piece on Boris Yeltsin," Methvin recalls. "I said
something like 'it's been a bad year for totalitarian regimes,
and this may be your year."'

Jentzsch says a church investigation of Behar and Methvin
indicates they have an affiliation with the American Family
Foundation, an organization Jentzch claims is involved with
kidnapping and deprogramming socalled religious cult members.
Methvin acknowledges he's a member of the advisory board but
says the organization has nothing to do with kidnapping or
deprogramming. He claims to have advised them by phone "maybe
twice" in ten years. Behar told The QUILL he has no formal
affiliation with the foundation. "I'm on their mailing list,"
Behar said, "and I've referred a few callers to them."

Although the church sought to prohibit publication in five
European countries, it has not filed suit in the U.S. against
either Time or Reader's Digest. Jentzsch says such such action
is still under consideration. _ Brian Steffens

 
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