By Porter Anderson, editor-in-chief of @Porter_Anderson
Today’s interrogation of Svetlana Alexievich, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, is a hotspot for the humanitarian crisis for the IPA and the federation.
As Peter Graff of Reuters reports this morning, his report is published here through The New York Times, Alexievich asked Moscow to convince Minsk to negotiate with protesters who flood the streets for two weeks to oppose what they say is Lukashenko’s August. nine electoral frauds.
Alexievich told reporters that she refused to testify and mentioned her right to testify against herself. He is a member of the recently formed opposition “coordinating council” that hopes to negotiate a replacement leadership after what they say is a rigged election.
This morning’s most recent related press report that the government has arrested more than 50 people in other parts of the country. “The brutal crackdown on nonviolent demonstrations has fueled public anger,” says ap’s (unsigned) report, “helping to inflate the number of protesters, reaching an unprecedented peak of about 200,000 participants on two consecutive Sundays.
“Mass crowds have forced the government to back down and allow protests to continue unhindered for the next two weeks. “
The Union of Belarusian Writers is a member organization of the Council of European Writers, and the Council has continuously broadcast the announcements of the Belarusian organization. On Tuesday, August 25, the Belarusian organization wrote in part: “The government is seeking to carry out propaganda in Belarusian society, as recently in Ukraine. By enforcing and spreading false information, the government must sow hostility among participants in demonstrations. non-violent and, above all, show external observers, basically Russian, that Belarus will lately have to actively interfere in internal affairs, adding internal affairs, adding [use of] military personnel.
And here’s the Writers’ Council that the IPA and the Federation of European Publishers are helping today.
The Council of European Writers on Monday (24 August) condemned the opening of a case through the commission of inquiry opposed to Alexievich.
Germany’s Nina George, president of the European Writers’ Council, wrote: “We condemn Lukashenko’s threatening gesture as opposed to the will for freedom and justice of the enthusiastic opposition to dialogue, and ask her to abandon the opposite case to the Coordination Council. and free the two detained members of the new corps, Sergei Dilevsky and Olga Kovalkova.
“We, our member of the EEC, the Belarusian Writers’ Union (UBW), in their efforts for democratic and free elections, and in their commitment to freedom of expression. “
Through the API and the Federation of European Publishers, he joins the Writers Council in its Matrix today
Rudy Vanschoonbeek, President of the Brussels-based Federation of European Publishers, said: “We call on all foreign publishers of Svetlana Alexievich’s books to make their voices heard. We want you to make the terrible scenario in Belarus known. and that they contribute to a diplomatic and non-violent end result to this crisis.
Editor Hugo Setzer, president of the International Association of Publishers, based in Mexico City, says: “We stand in solidarity with all those in Belarus who have freedom of expression to achieve a replacement through non-violent and constructive dialogue.
“The repression we are seeing in Belarus is despicable and will have to stop. “
And Kristenn Einarsson, who chairs the API’s Freedom of Publication Committee, the manufacturer of the Voltaire Prize, says: “There is a long crackdown on freedom of expression in Belarus.
In 2014, API awarded its Voltaire Award, for its bravery in protecting the freedom to publish from intimidation and harassment, to Belarusian publisher Ihar Lohvinau. After receiving the award, Lohvinau had his publication license revoked and forced to publish in Lithuanian exile.
The set through the International Publishers Association and the Federation of European Publishers can be found here.
Ongoing mass protests in Belarus are also increasing national and foreign alarm, of course, due to the presence of COVID-19 coronavirus. At the time of writing, update 4:28 a. m. JOHNs Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center ET (8:28 a. m. GMT) cites 79,727 cases of contagion in the small national population of 9. 5 million. That’s a jump of nearly 10,000 cases since our last report on Friday. The death toll in the country from the pathogen is 657.
More information about freedom of expression from the perspectives of publication is here and more of us about freedom of publication is here.
To receive more information about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and its effect on publishing eBooks abroad, click here and on the CORONAVIRUS tab on the most sensitive page of each of our website.
Tags: authors, Belarus, coronavirus, COVID-19, Doubleday, Europe, Federation of European Publishers, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Publication, Hugo Setzer, International Publishers Association, Kristenn Einarsson, PEN International, Penguin Random House, Political Books, Voltaire Award, Writers