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To create and maintain flexible societies, publishers must be allowed to challenge the barriers of the society in which they operate, was heard at the 33rd Congress of the International Publishers Association in Jakarta, Indonesia, on November 10, in a discussion that tested the prospect of social media to close the public debate. and conversely its use to combat the restrictions of authoritarian states.
Speaking at a panel titled “Freedom or Surveillance: How Technology Affects Freedom to Publish,” Azadeh Parsapour, editor-in-chief of Nogaam Publishing, explained that virtual technologies have allowed her publishing space, which from the UK publishes books that can be simply published internally her local Iran – to exist.
“One of the freedoms that Iran has been harmed by for decades is the freedom to read e-books as the writer writes them,” he said. In Iran, each and every e-book will have to download a permit to be published, and the lucky ones will get a permit after a censorship process, while others “are considered unpublishable and blacklisted. “media. ” My task would be very unlikely without this,” Parsapour told Congress.
The publisher founded the Tehran Uncensored Book Fair, a secondary occasion to the existing fair in the Iranian capital, and held it for the first time in London in 2016, involving Persian publishers from around the world. With the pandemic, the fair was practically held in 2020 and “for the first time, Iranian readers in a perspective of the country were able to share,” Parsapour said. “But access to the web and social media is not simple in Iran: my site has been blocked. protests against the regime], Iran has noticed another circular of web closures. All foreign platforms have been blocked and thousands have been shut down because of what they have posted online.
Insisting that “virtual rights are human rights,” he called for the progression of the new law from virtual rights to freedom of expression.
Thanapol Eawsakui of Thai publisher Same Sky, in collaboration with panel chair Trasvind Jittidecharak, editor of Silkworm Books in Thailand, also explored restrictions in Thailand, where complaints against the monarchy are prohibited by strict lèse-majesté laws.
But Kristenn Einarsson, chair of the IPA’s freedom of publication committee, warned that social media was a central component of the progression over the past decade of “fewer democracies, more autocracies. “Social media is the most important channel for influencing giant teams. of other people, especially other young people, without editing or correcting, this uninterrupted has allowed figures such as the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, “to confuse various ‘versions’ of the truth,” he said; Meanwhile, social media was also “a better way to shut down other people through public shaming,” and the government can simply use web shutdowns to silence widespread criticism. , even and especially if it challenges the barriers of the society in which they operate. “
Hilmar Farid, president and commissioner of the state-owned publishing space Balai Pustaka and Indonesia’s director general of culture, said that because of the social media landscape, “before we talked about the uncontrolled force of governments, now we talked about the uncontrolled force of governments. “strength of the corporations that own the media landscape. The debate is whether Donald Trump can return to Twitter or not, and everyone is waiting to see what Elon Musk decides. discourse or polarization of society. ” How do you walk on that thin line?”He asked. ” How do you do that?Part of a democratic society is about opening up the procedure and allowing a large number of other people to participate. The procedure will still have to be “ongoing,” he said.
Einarsson added: “For governments, if you want freedom of expression, it’s a balance between freedom and preventing hate speech. I was hoping that the other people buying tech corporations [wouldn’t] be just innovators and wealthy, but publishers. The Internet has been around for 20 years, they want to perceive responsibility, publishers give them extensive courses, we want to tell tech corporations that they can’t say they’re just connecting and they’re not guilty of the content.
There were 640 registrations from 63 countries for this year’s Congress, which made its way through the Jakarta Regional Government to inspire attendees despite the uncertainties caused by Covid.
The impact of AI, the sustainability of children’s books and the publishing industry’s path to network 0 were also discussed on day one. the Innovation in Publishing Award went to Brazil’s Camara Brasileria do Livro for its Bookstore Connection project, a pandemic-driven initiative to link independent bookstores with wholesalers and a generation platform to simplify the delivery of books to consumers in hours instead of days.