Various reviewers of Alex Gibney’s documentary, which speaks to defectors from Scientology, have been contacted with emails demanding they include comment from the Church

The Church of Scientology has started contacting film critics who have reviewed Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

In the film, Gibney outlines the inception and growth of the religion founded by L Ron Hubbard in 1953, which features an exotic mythology and unusual spirituality based around transcending earlier trauma. Gibney interviews defectors from the religion, including Crash director Paul Haggis, and paints its significant figures, like Tom Cruise and leader David Miscavige, in a negative light.

Reviewers of the film, from Us Weekly to Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post, have received an email which reads:

The above article concerning Going Clear, Alex Gibney’s film, was posted without contacting the Church for comment. As a result, your article reflects the film which is filled with bald faced lies. I ask that you include a statement from the Church in your article. There is another side to the story which has to be told. Do not be the mouthpiece for Alex Gibney’s propaganda.

Sundance 2015 review: Going Clear – Scientology film preaches to converted Read more

The spokeswoman, Karin Pouw, also included an official Church of Scientology statement on the documentary, reading in part: “The accusations made in the film are entirely false and alleged without ever asking the Church... Gibney’s sources are the usual collection of obsessive, disgruntled former Church members kicked out as long as 30 years ago for malfeasance, who have a documented history of making up lies about the Church for money.”

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It follows a major online campaign by the Church to discredit Gibney, the director of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side, and Finding Fela. Various articles on the Scientology website Freedom have been written, individually debunking those involved, and a new hashtag-strewn Twitter account, Freedom Media Ethics, has been set up in an attempt to make their campaign viral.

Responding to the Church’s tactics, Gibney told Flavorwire: “Anytime someone writes something — film criticism or social criticism — about Scientology, the Church of Scientology counter-attacks by smearing critics. But a careful investigation of the church’s claims will reveal that most of the misdeeds by critics (Rathbun, et al) were committed on behalf of the Church of Scientology! As you saw in the film, these people are now repenting and the Church of Scientology wants to punish them for it.” Gibney said his requests for interviews with Scientology members were denied; the Church claims they offered interviews with family members of the defectors.

The film will be screened on US TV network HBO in March – last year the network’s president of documentaries, Sheila Nevins, said they had “probably 160 lawyers” working with them on the film.