Here's a post from alt.fan.landmark regarding the above. You can search "Sweden" within the group for more details.
Ellen
From:
lxxxxxxxx...@hotmail.com (Petezed)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.landmark
Subject: Landmark attack on major daily in Sweden
Date: 18 Aug 2002 02:19:01 -0700
I'd like to report about a major attack by LEC on a leading daily
newspaper in Sweden.
In early June the Swedish national daily "Dagens Nyheter", a
broadsheet with a circulation of some 380000 copies, published a
series of articles about LEC and abuse of LEC clients. The articles
were publíshed over three consecutive days and included interviews
with LEC supporters and staff.
Ahead of the publication the staff writer received a number of
threatening and abusive phone calls from LEC press officer Mark Kamin.
The standard LEC press package of some 150 pages of documentation was
sent to the paper, headed by a letter with threatening wording from an
LEC attorney.
The main article in the series was an interview with "Eva", a 35 year
old Forum graduate who had experienced a reactive psychosis
immediately following a Forum course. She had made a suicide attempt
and was taken into psychiatric ward for ten days, and was subsequently
on sick leave for nine months. The series also included interviews
with leading psychologists, psychoanalysts, cult experts and Church of
Sweden priests who issued strong warnings against LEC and Forum.
The LEC response was to demand publication of a wordy "correction",
which was denied by the paper. This was followed by a complaint to the
national press ombudsman, which was rejected by the ombudsman within
days of reception. A new complaint was sent to the national press
council, which is yet to be decided, but is expected to be rejected as
well. Swedish law has strong protective mechanisms for free media and
LEC has no possibility of bringing the paper to court.
The staff reporter who wrote the articles has further informed me that
he received some 150 e-mail, letters and phone calls following the
series. The major part agreed with the negative conclusions of the
series. There were several reports of destroyed families after one
member had been absorbed by the cult and there was one reported
suicide following contact with LEC. Many of the communications
reported about serious personal disturbances following participation
in the Forum course. Letter writers who supported Landmark were very
aggressive and a small number (<10) cancelled subscriptions to the
paper.
The newspaper reporter says that he does not feel intimidated by the
attacks by Landmark and that he is now planning a new series of
articles about the LEC affiliated aid scam "The Hunger Project".
Following the series LEC seems to be in deep trouble in Sweden and has
had problems getting clients for two Forum courses in August and
October. An offer of doing the Forum practically for free has been
sent to Forum graduates, urging them to sign up friends and relatives.
The letter sent out by LEC contains highly slanderous wording about
the newspaper journalist and he is now considering legal action
against LEC.