The British Broadcasting Corp. and the Church of Scientology are duking it out on the internet over a dispute in which a reporter shouts angrily at a Scientology official.

John Sweeney's outburst came while he was researching a documentary scheduled for broadcast on the BBC's Panorama series.

The Church of Scientology was filming Sweeney as he investigated the organization, a tactic it has used in the past to intimidate reporters.

Some of that footage, including a 40-second rant that came as he was interviewing Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis, has been posted to YouTube.

BBC has responded on its website with a story from Sweeney accusing the Church of Scientology of using YouTube to attack his investigation of them.

Scientology presents a benign face and uses celebrities such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise to spread its message, Sweeney wrote.

"But start asking questions and you see a different face of Scientology," he said in the article.

"While making our BBC Panorama film 'Scientology and Me' I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a 'bigot' by star Scientologists and been chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers."

Sweeney said he lost his temper in the "mind control" section of a Los Angeles exhibit by Scientology that attempts to discredit modern psychiatry.

Davis had shouted at him and Sweeney said he shouted back.

The footage turned up on YouTube, along with clips of Sweeney challenging Travolta publicly over his connection to Scientology.

"I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine and every time I see it, it makes me cringe," Sweeney said, admitting his behaviour was not appropriate for a TV journalist.

"Meanwhile Scientology had rushed off copies of me losing it [my temper] to my boss, my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss, the director general of the BBC," he said.

The BBC has posted links to its footage and its own news report on its website, as well as reaction from the editor at Panorama.

A Scientology spokesman denied that Sweeney apologized, and said the organization was putting its own documentary about the dispute on the internet.

With files from the Associated Press