That Amazon.co.uk statement in full…

Statement by Simon Murdoch, managing director of Amazon.co.uk concerning the withdrawal of The Committee

"It is the policy of Amazon.co.uk to offer our customers a full catalogue of all books legally available to be sold in the UK. This is based on our fundamental belief in the importance of free speech. We also believe strongly that it is not our responsibility to decide which books are acceptable to sell. Rather than impose our beliefs or prejudices on our customers, we believe that this is a role that should be the responsibility of elected government, their delegated body or the Courts. Anything else amounts to private censorship.

"Let us be clear. There are no government or court restrictions on selling this book in the UK. "It is therefore with great reluctance that Amazon.co.uk will not be accepting further orders at present for this title. We have been put on notice that the book contains defamatory allegations. Our legal advisors have told us that, although we have a legal right to sell this book, if we continue to do so, under current UK defamation laws, we could be compelled to defend in court defamatory allegations (if any) made in the book against Liam Clarke, Trevor Forbes, Barrie Penrose, David Trimble and others. As we have no way of proving or disproving any such allegations, we have no option but to withdraw this book from our catalogue."

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