[...] Almost daily threatening letters arrived by fax and post at the newspaper where I used to work. Messages were left on the answer machine at the home of the managing director.

Strangers turned up in his village asking questions about him.

And the culprits behind this campaign of intimidation? Step forward the Church of Scientology.

This week the Mail exposed disturbing apparent links between the "church" and the City of London Police.

Our report was followed by a Panorama programme in which reporter John Sweeney was seen losing his temper with a scientologist, claiming afterwards that he had been driven over the edge by a concerted campaign of harassment by the group. [...]

I was wrong to lose it, I apologised then and I apologise now.

But Scientology is something else. They’ve also put out an attack magazine in which they say: “John Sweeney outdid Hitler at his Nuremberg Rally speech.”

I’m a disgrace, a bigot, the BBC has dumbed down. And their DVD says Panorama faked a demonstration which triggered terrorist threats against the Church — implying that we might be in league with terrorists.

That’s what happens when you start ask questions about Scientology. They come for you, big time. [...]

The Church of Scientology last night launched a fresh attempt to discredit the Panorama reporter John Sweeney, following the broadcast of a prime time BBC1 programme investigating its controversial beliefs and recruiting methods.

As Panorama editor Sandy Smith took to the airwaves to defend Sweeney's investigation following the furore around his furious YouTube outburst captured by Scientology cameras, the war of words and online propaganda intensified.

Mike Rinder, a director at Church of Scientology International, said it was considering legal action and a formal complaint to the media regulator Ofcom. [...]

JOHN Travolta is a halfwit. A statement of the obvious, perhaps, given his adherence to a cult which believes we’re all infected with the souls of aliens who were banished to earth 75 million years ago by an evil galactic warlord called Xenu. But if anyone doubted it, the former disco-strutter confirmed his asininity by publicly urging the BBC not to screen John Sweeney’s Panorama film about Scientology last night. Not to be outdone, Travolta’s fellow-cultists gleefully posted on YouTube a clip of Sweeney losing his temper.

Had they paused for a moment’s rational thought — tricky, I agree, with extraterrestrial imps running amok in your brain — they’d have realised their actions could only boost the audience for Panorama. Is this what they wanted?

I doubt it. Scientologists loathe journalistic scrutiny, and with good reason. For decades they were visible merely as pod-people who lurked in the Tottenham Court Road, inviting passers-by to come in and take a “personality test” — as familiar and absurd as their near-neighbour Stanley Green, the sandwich-board man of Oxford Street who warned that protein was the root of all evil.

Recently, however, these extraterrestrial creeps have been using their vast wealth to buy respectability; and until Sweeney got on their case they were doing rather well. At the opening of their huge new headquarters in the City of London last October, Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley praised Scientologists as “a force for good — raising the spiritual wealth of society”. It then emerged that at least 20 of his fellow officers in the City force had accepted hospitality from the Church of Scientology in the previous year, including invitations to the premiere of Mission: Impossible 3 and tickets to a £500-ahead dinner attended by Tom Cruise. [...]

We set out to ask if Scientology was changing. It's an organisation with a chequered history, and a very colourful founder. It's been described as corrupt and sinister in courts in the UK. But the Church says that's all in the past, and it's just opened a new HQ in London.

As part of his investigations, our reporter John Sweeney (more from him here) had been shown an exhibition entitled the 'Industry of Death'. Scientologists believe that all psychiatry should be eradicated, and that it is evil in every form. Like everything to do with Scientology, their views are absolute. [...]

THE Church of Scientology is launching a website and magazine in its campaign against the BBC, aimed at “exposing” its “rogue” documentary tactics.

It comes amid a growing row over a Panorama investigation into the religious sect, which is due to be screened tonight.

During filming, reporter John Sweeney lost his temper and shouted at Scientology representative Tommy Davis. Footage of the scene — which Scientologists say is proof of bias — was posted on internet site YouTube. Scientologists have also spent a reported £30,000 sending 100,000 copies of a DVD of the incident to MPs, media groups, religious leaders and heads of business.

Mr Sweeney claims he and some of his film team were “spied upon” by Scientologists.

Now Scientology chiefs are to go live with an anti-BBC website, www.bbcpanorama-exposed.net, where visitors can order a magazine containing alleged criticisms of the BBC.

Mike Rinder, a director of Scientology International, told the Standard that the claims of spying were “an absolute and utter lie” and indicated the church may consider legal action.

Panorama editor Sandy Smith today defended Mr Sweeney and vowed the documentary would be broadcast.

BBC reporter John Sweeney apologises for losing his temper on tonight's Panorama programme on Scientology.

He talks about the 6 months of intensive research behind the film and what it was exactly that drove him to lose it

This was a disaster.

I feel ashamed and, although I've been kicked around the Panorama office by the BBC, no one is more embarrassed about me losing it than me.

I let my team down and I apologised when it happened and I apologise again now.

However, to understand how I felt, you've got to spend six months investigating the Church of Scientology, then a whole week of continued contact with both its followers and its ex-followers, then spend 90 minutes inside an exhibition on mind control and then try to behave normally.

I felt as though I was losing my mind to them. [...]

A bitter row has erupted between the BBC and the Church of Scientology after an experienced reporter lost his temper on camera and screamed at a senior member of the controversial group for 30 seconds.

The corporation has been forced to defend itself against claims in a Scientology DVD that it orchestrated a demonstration against the group, whose adherents include Hollywood actors John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Anne Archer, in which a "terrorist death threat" was allegedly made.

John Sweeney, a journalist for Panorama, has also had to apologise for his outburst after he was filmed shouting furiously at Tommy Davis, a Scientologist. [...]

The battleground is YouTube and Scientology's weapon is a clip of me losing it in the "Mind Control" section of a gruesome exhibition.

Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them.

Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it.

There is talk of 100,000 copies being released. [...]

The BBC has hit back at accusations that it orchestrated a demonstration against Scientologists during which a "terrorist death threat" was allegedly made.

It comes as a bitter row develops between the Corporation and Scientologists over a highly critical Panorama documentary about the religion, in which a veteran reporter lost his temper and screamed for 30 seconds at a Church member.

The BBC has seriously reprimanded John Sweeney for the outburst, which the journalist has admitted was "wrong and stupid".

The church posted the clip of Mr Sweeney's rant on the self-broadcasting website YouTube, and has now distributed 100,000 copies of a DVD it made of the BBC crew filming the documentary.

It released the DVD to MPs, peers and religious leaders in an offensive to counter allegations made against Scientologists in the Panorama film. The BBC documentary will be aired on BBC1 tomorrow. [...]

A Journalist at Panorama, the BBC's flagship current affairs series, has been reprimanded for losing his temper and screaming with rage during the making of an investigation into the Church of Scientology.

John Sweeney has apologised for the outburst against a scientologist which was filmed and then put on the video-sharing website YouTube, prompting criticism of the corporation. The BBC held an internal inquiry but said Sweeney had not breached any guidelines.

The incident is one of the first examples of 'video ambushing', where organisations being investigated turn the camera on the film makers. The Church of Scientology, whose members include the Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, shadowed the Panorama team in America with its own camera crew. It has made a 'counter documentary', attacking Sweeney's methods, and distributed 100,000 DVDs to MPs, civil servants, religious groups, media organisations and business leaders. [...]

John Travolta has launched a bitter attack on a veteran BBC reporter over a Panorama film that exposes the methods used by Scientology and questions whether it is a "brainwashing cult".

The Hollywood star has written to Corporation chiefs accusing journalist John Sweeney of venting "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" and harbouring "hatred against my religion". [...]

THE Church of Scientology is trying to counter a BBC exposé by turning the cameras on the Panorama investigators and distributing 100,000 DVDs of its “findings”.

In a preemptive strike that is costing the church £30,000, it is sending copies of the DVD to all MPs and peers, religious leaders and other “influential” figures.

So determined has it been to neuter claims in the programme that it is a cult that its film makers tailed the journalists, employed CCTV and repeatedly confronted reporters.

It accuses the BBC of sharp practice and “gross bias” — and has posted footage on YouTube of the programme’s reporter John Sweeney “losing it” by screaming at a Scientology spokesman. [...]

The battleground is YouTube and Scientology's weapon is a clip of me losing it in the "Mind Control" section of a gruesome exhibition.

Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them.

Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it.

There is talk of 100,000 copies being released. [...]