The International Publishers Association (IPA) has appointed James Taylor to be its next Director, Communications and Freedom to Publish, a pivotal role in the IPA’s promotion of copyright and freedom to publish – the drivers of the organization’s dual mandates as a global trade association and human rights defender.
Göteborg, 30 September 2017 – Turkey’s abysmal freedom of expression record was the focus of the international publishing industry last night as the 2017 IPA Prix Voltaire was jointly awarded to persecuted publisher and journalist Turhan Günay and shuttered Turkish publishing house Evrensel, during Göteborg Book Fair, in Sweden.
A Turkish court ordered the release of seven suspects, including book publisher Turhan Günay, on Friday (28 July) in the trial of 17 journalists and executives from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet.
The IPA has echoed a call by Penguin Random House in Mexico for sincere efforts to stop the slaughter of media workers and end the impunity that is eroding freedom of expression and Mexico’s democratic credibility.
The IPA was among 400 donors of more than €16,000 raised in four days to fund full-page solidarity ads in Turkish news media expressing unity with the country’s oppressed writers, publishers, journalists and academics ahead of a crucial constitutional referendum, on April 16.
The IPA today applauded the decision by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to award its 2017 Jeri Laber Award to Swedish publisher and bookseller Gui Minhai, who has been held in incommunicado detention without charge in mainland China for more than 18 months.
The International Publishers Association (IPA) has published its first Freedom to Publish Manifesto, a declaration of the IPA’s steadfast commitment to raise the alarm when publishers are threatened and to counter their repression through international activism.
The 2017 presentation of the IPA Prix Voltaire will return to the Göteborg Book Fair, Sweden, 11 years after the first ‘IPA Freedom Prize’ was awarded to Iranian publisher Shalah Lahiji, in September 2006.