Book pulled after threat of litigation

IN AN unprecedented move, NB Publishers has withdrawn copies of the controversial book, The Lost Boys Of Bird Island, in both English and Afrikaans after a litigation threat by one of the men, indirectly identified in the “exposé”.

In a statement yesterday, the company said: “While attempts were made to conceal his identity, NB Publishers accepts that the books contain sufficient information to identify Mr (Barend) du Plessis as an involved party.” Yesterday, Du Plessis’s legal representatives, Johan Victor Attorneys, described the book as a “fabrication, and a web of lies weaved by the co-authors of the book, Mark Minnie and Chris Steyn”.

According to NB Publishers, the statements in the book could not be independently verified and, for this reason, they have unreservedly apologised to Du Plessis.

The company added that to limit further distribution of the book, it had withdrawn unsold copies of the work from bookstores, while the e-book has been removed from online e-trade platforms.

In a statement, the firm of attorneys representing the families of the deceased ministers implicated, and one still alive, said that back channel discussions with the publisher to withdraw the book had failed.

For this reason, the attorneys had sent a Promotion of Access to Information Act request to Media24, requesting initial correspondence from the writers to the publishers, “other correspondence, the authors’ contracts, the various iterations of the drafts of the book as well as the written opinion of the attorney advising the publisher as to possible action for defamation”.

The publisher said the apology was only limited to Du Plessis and not to the others implicated in the book.

“NB Publishers shall defend any attempt at discrediting the book and its contents in the appropriate forum,” NB Publishers added.

The Rapport newspaper published an apology in April last year for publishing allegations of sexual assault made against the ministers of the former National Party.