Lately I have become more and more aware of corporate secrecy and how corporate can become corrupt. The definition of Corporation “The process of becoming a corporation, call incorporation, gives the company separate legal standing from its owners and protects those owners from being personally liable in the event that the company is sued (a condition known as limited liability).”)

panorama - Scientology and me

A good example of an organisation that works hard to maintain secrecy is The Church of Scientology. I was fascinated by the way this ‘corporation’ dealt with a recent BBC Panorama documentary, “Scientology and Me”, and more personally, behaved towards the host and journalist - John Sweeny.

• The Church shadow-filmed the documentary and created their own counter documentary.
• Mr Sweeny was followed everywhere he went, interupted on several occasions when interviewing people whose opinions went against the faith, and was censored on what words he could use when describing the Church.

The Church of Scientology came out as being extremely paranoid about any other voice, but their own, discussing their religion. The documentary itself didn’t get into much detail, due to the Scientologists interventions, but their overreaction acted against their belief, rather than for it.

After the documentary was filmed, slanderous material was published online by the Church of Scientology against John Sweeny on youtube and Freedom Magazine, (the Church of Scientology’s own publication). This form of dead agenting is a policy of the Church of Scientology.

John Sweeny handled the behaviour of the Scientologists very well. I, myself, would never have had the restraint he had. His reaction to the Scientology exhibition “Psychiatry: Industry of Death”, promoting violence against other human beings who practice psychiatry, was how my dad would have reacted. Any religion that promotes such a reaction from a professional journalist needs scrutinizing.

I would urge you to watch the full documentary. However this is not the first documentary made by the BBC on Scientology. This 1987 production perhaps gives a less censored view into the cult… I mean religion of Scientology.