The book, Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography, is being released in the United States this week. The publisher, St Martins Press, has clearly weighed up the legal risks in various countries. The book is not being published in Australia.
Various articles published over recent days claim that Australian bookshops have bowed to pressure from the Church of Scientology and Tom Cruise not to publish the book. Dymocks and Angus & Robertson have confirmed that they will not stock the book due to the legal risks. The Church of Scientology has applauded the bookstores for not stocking the books.
This highlights the significant differences in US libel law compared to Australia.
In the US, a plaintiff like Tom Cruise (a public figure) would need to prove that the defamatory statement was published with actual malice, which is defined as “knowledge that the statement was false or reckless”. Thus the onus is on the plaintiff. This is often a difficult hurdle for a plaintiff.
In contrast, in Australia the onus is on the publisher to prove that the material published is true or that another defence is available to it. This is a far greater hurdle to jump than that faced by the plaintiff in the US. A publisher could not hope to know as much about the plaintiff as the plaintiff himself.
US law places more emphasis on the public’s right to know. As one leading US media lawyer said, “it takes a lot in America to say something so hurtful and with such loudness that the law will punish it”.
Australia has tilted the balance between freedom of speech and protecting reputations very much in favour of protecting reputations. Publishers are faced with the risk of substantial damages awards and substantial legal costs.
Both Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology have a history of exercising their rights to threaten legal proceedings or to issue legal proceedings against publishers (Wikipedia has a handy litigation wrap).
The book is unlikely to be available to Australian readers online. If anyone in Australia read it online, it would be technically published in Australia for defamation purposes and the US publishers and author could be sued here.
It is a sad day when a group of bullies who follow a religion based on the bizarre imagination of a science fiction writer are seen by publishers to be sufficiently threatening to stifle the notion of freedom of speech in this country.
As soon as I saw this report, I ordered the book via Amazon.com. I find it deeply offensive that a semi-educated ‘celebrity’ who follws a ‘religion’ as risable as is scientology–AND a foreigner–should have such an effect on free speech in Australia.
How long will this take to get onto a torrent and therefore available for Australian readers to download & read. When it does, it will make a mockery of our libel laws.