International Alliance of Independent Publishers launches global freedom to publish study
The International Alliance of Independent Publishers (IAIP) has launched a first-of-its-kind study into worldwide threats to freedom to publish and the ways publishers respond to them. The IPA spoke to Laurence Hugues, Director of the Paris-based IAIP, about the objectives and scope of the yearlong study, which seeks to be as globally representative as possible.
#FreeWordsTurkey petition with 111,047 signatures presented to Germany’s federal government
Berlin – The German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V.), the PEN Centre Germany (PEN-Zentrum Deutschland) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporter ohne Grenzen e.V.) emphatically called on the German Government today to express its uncompromising commitment to freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Turkey.
Spare a thought for Turkey’s jailed writers this holiday season
As much of the Western world basks in heart-warming reverie of festive cheer, good food and the company of loved ones, hundreds of writers and intellectuals will be languishing in Turkish jails on spurious charges with no sense of what fate awaits them.
Independent Hong Kong publishing still reeling after bookseller kidnappings
Publishers driving Hong Kong’s once booming independent book business are living with the twin threats of financial ruin and arrest by Chinese Mainland police in the wake of the Causeway Bay bookseller kidnappings in 2015, the IPA learned during a visit to the city this month.
IPA calls on Turkish Prime Minister to free jailed authors
The IPA today called on Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to immediately release jailed author Aslı Erdoğan and linguist Necmiye Alpay and to remember his country’s human rights obligations as the state’s relentless purge of dissenters continues unabated.
Daughter of kidnapped Hong Kong bookseller: ‘IPA members can help my father’
Monday 17 October was not only set-up day at Frankfurt Book Fair, it also marked a year to the day that Gui Minhai vanished from his holiday home in Thailand at the hands of unidentified agents. For three months his family went without news of his welfare or whereabouts, before he resurfaced in Mainland Chinese police custody.
IPA President tells Turkish publishers their international peers stand beside them
IPA President Richard Charkin has told a gathering of Turkish publishing executives that the global publishing community stands ready to support them as they strive to weather mounting political pressure in Turkey.
The right to write: the bittersweet liberty of a North Korean writer in exile
Lee Ji-myung always wanted to write, even though his creativity could only ever have one possible application in his country — to serve the State. Today, the 63 year old is the president of the North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Center, a collective of writers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that have defected to South Korea, and who now devote themselves to ‘prying open the doors’ of their homeland through literature.
German publishers lead call for diplomatic action on Turkey
The German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels e.V.), PEN Centre Germany and Reporters Without Borders Germany have issued a joint call for a tougher diplomatic response to the systematic stifling of freedom of expression in Turkey.
Bankruptcy fears as Turkish government closes 29 publishing houses
The Turkish Publishers Association, an IPA member, has issued the following press release (translated from the Turkish) following the closure of 29 Turkish publishing houses under a sweeping state crackdown in response to the failed July 15 coup. The IPA fully supports the TPA, and urges Ankara to rescind the summary closure of these publishing businesses.