Boomerang Books will not be able to sell the Tom Cruise Unauthorised Biography by Andrew Morton in Australia. The distributor has decided not to provide stocks of the book outside of the United States

Pan Macmillan's decision not to publish Tom Cruise, An Unauthorised Biography (Andrew Morton) in Australia has made headlines both here and overseas in the past week.

The book, which reportedly contains unflattering revelations about the actor and the Church of Scientology of which he is a member, was released yesterday in the United States by St Martin's Press, amid reports Cruise was considering legal action against Morton and the publisher.

Pan Macmillan spokesperson Annie Coulthard told WBN the Australian publisher's decision not to publish the title was not related to the threat of litigation in the United States but was the result of a ‘run of the mill' legal assessment of the book and was made ‘well before Christmas.'

‘The decision was based on our own legal advice about what the situation for [the title] is in the context of the Australian legal system,' she said. ‘We looked at it on its own merits and we decided not to publish it for legal reasons.'

Chain booksellers including Dymocks, Angus & Robertson and Borders have said they will not stock the book, but other booksellers will import the book from the United States to sell.

Pan Macmillan's decision not to publish the book and the decision of some booksellers not to import it have been decried as censorship in some news reports, however defamation lawyer Peter Bartlett, writing in Crikey yesterday said the situation ‘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.'

The book has also been withdrawn in the UK and New Zealand, and Amazon.com's US-based website carries a note saying that 'The Publisher has authorized the distribution of this book only to customers within the United States and Canada.'