INTERNATIONAL/TURKEY Bulletin (2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize awarded to persecuted publisher Ragip Zarakolu)

From: IFEX Action Alert Network <alerts@ifex.org>
Date: 15/05/2008 17.32
Subject: INTERNATIONAL/TURKEY Bulletin (2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize awarded to persecuted publisher Ragip Zarakolu)
To: patrickpmacmanus@gmail.com

IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE - INTERNATIONAL/TURKEY

15 May 2008

2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize awarded to persecuted publisher Ragip Zarakolu

SOURCE: International Publishers' Association (IPA), Geneva

(IPA/IFEX) - The following is an abridged IPA press release:

The 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize goes to Ragip Zarakolu

Seoul, Amsterdam, Geneva - During the closing ceremony of the 28th IPA Publishers Congress in Seoul, Korea, IPA President Ana María Cabanellas
announced that publisher Ragip Zarakolu was voted recipient of the 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize for his exemplary courage in upholding freedom to
publish.

The board of the International Publishers Association (IPA) meeting in Seoul, Korea, selected Ragip Zarakolu as Prize-winner from among many
highly commendable candidates, announced IPA President Ana María Cabanellas.

IPA established the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize to honour a person who has made an important contribution to the defence and promotion of freedom to
publish anywhere in the world. This year's award will be formally presented during the opening ceremony of the international seminar on neo-censorship
in Amsterdam on 18 September 2008.

Ana María Cabanellas declares: "Ragip Zarakolu's work as a publisher and his wholehearted support of freedom to publish have often brought him into
conflict with the authorities and endangered his personal safety. Ragip Zarakolu has persistently continued to tackle controversial issues, thus
encouraging healthy debate in Turkey. We award this Prize to Ragip Zarakolu in deep respect for his courage as a publisher and as a salute to the
passion, the integrity, and the steadfastness that he so marvelously demonstrates".

IPA Freedom to Publish Committee Chair Bjørn Smith-Simonsen adds: "Ragip Zarakolu has long been exposed to legal harassment for publishing books on minorities and human rights. We hope this Prize will encourage him to continue his publishing work".

The other short-listed candidates nominated by IPA members, individual publishers and human rights' organisations were: Marc Falkoff (USA),
Carsten Juste (Denmark), Shi Tao (China), Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly (Vietnam), and Dusan Velickovic (Serbia).

BACKGROUND:
Ragip Zarakolu is a Turkish publisher born in 1948. Since starting his publishing house, Belge, with his wife Ayse Nur in 1977, he has been
subjected to harassment from the Turkish authorities. Despite a three-year jail sentence, Zarakolu refused to abandon his campaign for freedom of
thought, striving "for an attitude of respect for different thoughts and cultures to become widespread in Turkey". Over the years, the charges
brought by the Turkish authorities against Zarakolu and his wife resulted in further imprisonment for the couple, confiscation and destruction of
books, and the imposition of heavy fines, endangering the survival of his publishing house. Ragip Zarakolu is the chairperson of the Freedom to
Publish Committee of the Turkish Publishers Association.

IPA established the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize to honour each year a person or an organisation that has made an important contribution to the
defence and promotion of freedom to publish anywhere in the world. Recently, the 2006 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize was awarded to Iranian
publisher Shalah Lahiji during the Göteborg Book Fair, and the 2007 Prize went to Zimbabwean publisher Trevor N'cube at the Cape Town Book Fair in
South Africa. Special posthumous prizes were also given to Anna Politkovskaya and Hrant Dink. The 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize is sponsored by the Dutch Publishers Association (NUV). For more information,
see: http://www.nuv.nl/web/show/id=96378

The 2008 IPA Freedom to Publish Prize will be given in Amsterdam on 18 September 2008 during the opening ceremony of the International Seminar on
Neo-censorship (18-20 September 2008). This seminar is part of the Amsterdam World Book Capital 2008 programme. For more about the seminar,
please see:
http://www.amsterdamworldbookcapital.com/index.cfm?page=agenda&y=2008&m=9&d=18

(. . .)

For further information on the harassment of Zarakolu for his publishing work, see:
http://www.ifex.org/20fr/content/view/full/91786
http://www.ifex.org/20fr/content/view/full/88645

For further information, contact Alexis Krikorian, Director, Freedom to Publish, IPA, 3, avenue de Miremont, Ch-1206, Geneva, Switzerland, tel: +41
22 830 1080 / 346 3018, fax: +41 22 347 5717, e-mail:
krikorian@internationalpublishers.org, krikorian@ipa-uie.org,
secretariat@ipa-uie.org, Internet: http://www.internationalpublishers.org

The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility of IPA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit
IPA.
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