Kristenn Einarsson, Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee said: Both the author, Ambassador Bolton, and the publisher, Simon and Schuster are playing their vital roles in a democracy that respects the freedom to publish and enables an informed dialogue about issues of national importance. Such books deserve to be published.
IPA Secretary General, José Borghino added: The United States of America is a bastion of free speech, a fact exemplified by the strong stance Simon & Schuster has taken against this pressure from President Trump. However, seeing the highest office in the USA attempt to silence an author and a publisher sends a frighteningly negative signal around the world. It reminds us that freedom of expression must never be taken for granted and must be defended whenever it is attacked.
Adam Rothberg, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications at Simon & Schuster said: We are grateful for the support of our colleagues around the world. The ability to publish, unfettered by outside influence or interference, is the most dearly held freedom for every publisher, and we are pleased to work in concert with the International Publishers Association to protect and fight for that freedom.
About IPA
The International Publishers Association (IPA) is the world’s largest federation of publishers’ associations with 83 members in 69 countries. Established in 1896, the IPA is an industry body with a human rights mandate. The IPA’s mission is to promote and protect publishing and to raise awareness of publishing as a force for economic, cultural and social development. Working in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and numerous international NGOs, the IPA champions the interests of book and journal publishing at national and supranational level. Internationally, the IPA actively opposes censorship and promotes copyright, freedom to publish (including through the IPA Prix Voltaire), and literacy.
About the Freedom to Publish
The IPA promotes the Freedom to Publish by raising awareness of the threats to publishers in many regions of the world and by supporting individual publishers through the annually awarded Prix Voltaire.
Prix Voltaire nominees are publishers – individuals, groups or organizations – who stand firm on freedom to publish, be it as longstanding defenders of these values or having recently published works despite pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment from various sources.
Previous prize recipients include Liberal Publishing House (2020, Vietnam), Khaled Lotfy (2019, Egypt), Gui Minhai (2018, Sweden), Turhan Günay and publishing house Evrensel (2017, Turkey), Raif Badawi (2016, Saudi Arabia) and Ihar Lohvinau (2014, Belarus).