PRESS RELEASE

Publishers and Authors File Suit Against Treasury Department; Seek to Roll Back Restrictions on Publishing Authors from Embargoed Countries

Contacts:
Anna Kushner (PEN) 212-334-1660 x106 anna@pen.org
Brenna McLaughlin (AAUP) 212 -989-1010 x24 bmclaughlin@aaupnet.org
Marc Brodsky (AAP/PSP) 301-209-3100 (office) 202-415-1152 (mobile) Brodsky@aip.org

New York, NY (September 27, 2004) - Calling the Treasury Department's continued attempts to exert control over publishing activities involving information and literature from countries under U.S. trade embargo a violation of the essential right of all Americans to learn about the world, a coalition including leading publishers and authors associations filed suit today against Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in federal court in New York.

The Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing division (AAP/PSP), the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), PEN American Center (PEN), and Arcade Publishing are asking the court to strike down OFAC regulations that require publishers and authors to seek a license from the government to perform the routine activities necessary to publish foreign literature from embargoed countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Sudan in the United States.

Representatives of the plaintiffs' organizations expressed frustration over a series of OFAC rulings that have created uncertainty among publishers fearful of incurring prison sentences of up to 10 years or fines of up to $1,000,000 per violation. Those rulings and the regulations they interpret mandate that American publishers (1) may not enter into transactions for works not yet fully completed, (2) may not provide "substantive or artistic alterations or enhancements" to any works from the embargoed countries, and (3) may not promote or market either new or previously existing works. The group challenges the regulations on the grounds that they violate the the Berman Amendment and the Free Trade In Ideas Amendment, which were added to the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to make clear that these laws exempt all "information and informational materials" from trade embargoes. The lawsuit also argues that OFAC's regulations violate the First Amendment.

"Our most basic liberties are violated when we, as publishers, have to either ask the government for permission to publish, or risk serious criminal and civil penalties if we do not obtain permission," said Marc Brodsky, chairman of the AAP/PSP and executive director of the American Institute of Physics, in explaining the reason for the suit.

PEN American Center president Salman Rushdie added that "the OFAC regulations are arbitrary and counterproductive. For example, OFAC says publishers are free to publish 'pre-existing' texts from these countries. Yet the countries currently under U.S. trade embargo routinely prevent important work by writers and scholars from seeing the light of day. American writers and publishers are being told that unless they get a license from OFAC, they may not work with their censored colleagues in these countries to bring their works into print."

"It is quite troubling that we will be risking criminal penalties if we proceed with the publication of The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature, which will present works created by Iranian writers, poets, and critics since the Iranian Revolution that expose the turmoil and repression of recent years," said Dick Seaver of Arcade Publishing. Peter Givler, executive director of AAUP added that one of the organization's members, The University of Alabama Press, has had to suspend publication of two books by Cuban scholars in the fields of archeology and history. Both include material otherwise unavailable to their colleagues abroad.

Similarly, the journal Mathematical Geology cancelled publication of a paper by Iranian geologists that presented a new methodology related to earthquake prediction. For a list of other publishing projects endangered by the regulations, see http://www.aaupnet.org/ofac/projects.html.

Edward Davis and Linda Steinman of the New York office of Davis Wright Tremaine are lead counsel for the plaintiffs. Marjorie Heins of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and law professor Leon Friedman are co-counsel for PEN and Arcade.

To read the Complaint in Association of American University Presses et al. v. Office of Foreign Assets Control et al., click here. To read the plaintiffs' brief in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction, click here. For other relevant documents in the case, visit http://aaupnet.org/ofac.

About the AAP/PSP (www.pspcentral.org)
Members of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Division of the Association of American Publishers, Inc. (AAP) publish the vast majority of materials used in the U.S. by scholars and professionals in science, medicine, technology, business, law, reference, social science and the humanities. The Division's 182 professional societies, commercial publishers and university presses produce books, journals, computer software, databases and electronic products.

About the AAUP (www.aaupnet.org)
The AAUP counts among its members 111 nonprofit scholarly publishers affiliated with research universities, scholarly societies, research institutions and museums located in 43 states. Collectively they publish around 10,000 books each year and over 700 journals in virtually every field of human knowledge.

About PEN American Center (www.pen.org)
PEN American Center is an organization of more than 2,500 prominent novelists, poets, essayists, translators, playwrights, and editors. As part of International PEN, it and its affiliated organizations have defended free and open communication within and among nations for more than 80 years.

About Arcade (www.arcadepub.com)
Arcade Publishing, Inc. is an independent book publisher based in New York City. Founded in 1988, it publishes fiction and nonfiction by authors from around the world, including works by some of the most prominent authors of our time. Arcade is the publisher of the upcoming PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature.

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