Hugo Setzer. Image: Caniem
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Setzer: ‘A World Where So Many Books Are Banned’
Ask Hugo Setzer what the main thrust of the upcoming IPA International Publishers Congress (December 3 to 6) will be, and you can feel the weight of the recent Mexican and United States elections in his voice.
“It has to do with the importance of publishing in a world where every day, there’s more fake news and disinformation,” Setzer says.
“And I think that will be something very important, as a result of the congress: It’s the value of what we provide to society as publishers in trusted information.
“And this can be anything,” Setzer says. “It doesn’t have to be only academic books or research and so on. It’s everything that we publish that’s been reviewed and tested. “We can’t afford to publish just anything from our desks.”
His point is highlighted by what Lachlan Cartwright at the Columbia Journalism Review writes is a legal letter from Donald Trump to The New York Times and Penguin Random House, described as “a discursive 10-page legal threat from an attorney for Donald Trump that demanded US$10 billion in damages over ‘false and defamatory statements’ contained in articles by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt; Susanne Craig; and Russ Buettner.”
Setzer: ‘An Important Part of the Congress’
In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, the successor in the presidency to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has reacted to the Moody’s rating service’ downgrade of Mexico’s debt to “negative,” as Fabiola Sanchez is writing for the Associated Press today.
“On one hand, we’re saying that we’re publishing trusted information; on the other hand, books are being banned.”Hugo Setzer
And Max Boot, in a new column at the Washington Post, focuses on Donald Trump’s choice of the former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, writing, “It is, in fact, Hegseth’s animosity toward the current military leadership, combined with his rugged good looks and frequent Fox News appearances, that seem to have recommended him to Trump despite his lack of obvious qualifications to run one of the world’s largest bureaucracies.”
These are only some of the latest instances in the two neighboring markets, Mexico and the United States, reflecting parallels in the directions their federal governments are moving.
“In a situation like this,” Setzer says, “there’s something very, very important and also related to what we have as our of concern at the International Publishers Association (IPA).
“For example,” he says, “we’ll have to talk more about the ‘trinity of freedoms,’ not only the freedom to publish, but also expression and freedom to read, right?”
A there’s the alarm of a “crazy world where so many books are being banned,” Setzer says. “On the one hand, we’re saying that we’re publishing trusted information; on the other hand, books are being banned.
Related article: ‘The UN’s Melissa Fleming: ‘Summit of the Future’ and IPA’s Congress.‘ Image: UN photo provided by the under-secretary-general’s office
“So it’s kind of crazy,” Setzer says. “But this will be an important part of the congress. It’s so difficult to counter all the fake news and disinformation.
“I think that that will be also a very important part,” he says, “because I know that UN under-secretary-general Melissa Fleming is very, very keen on talking about this in her speech, including about COVID disinformation” and what that dark phenomenon means to other parts of civic life and safety.
“Prevention, right?” Setzer says
“She’s totally right: We have to try to do something to be sure that people don’t so easily go for lies and manipulation.”
“In that sense,” Hugo Setzer says, “the publishing industry is very important.”
There’s still time to be part of the IPA’s International Publishers Congress, being produced by the Cámara Nacional de la Industria Editorial Mexicana (CANIEM), led by IPA past president Hugo Setzer, and by the Association of American Publishers, led by president and CEO Maria A. Pallante.- Registration and information can be found here.
- Setzer tells Publishing Perspectives that seats still are available, and he points out that the organization has begun selling single-day tickets for those unable to get to the screen.
There’s still time to be part of the IPA’s International Publishers Congress, being produced by the More from Publishing Perspectives on the International Publishers Association is here, more on the IPA’s biennial International Publishers Congress series is here, and more on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and related programs and initiatives in book publishing is here.