王应宽

Wang Yingkuan

Beijing, China

2015-11-03

国际出版商协会主席在阿拉伯出版商大会上的致辞

       2015年11月2日，国际出版商协会IPA主席Richard Charkin出席在阿联酋沙加召开的3届阿拉伯出版商大会并在开幕式发表演讲。Richard指出，积极参与就会创造机会支持我们的同事，不参与就一无所成。出版业基于商业，而商业基于沟通和诚信。以下是讲话的全文，主题涉及数字转型、创新、版权和出版自由。

"Engagement gives us a chance to support ourcolleagues." said Richard Charkin2 November 2015

Richard Charkin, IPA President spoke today at the opening of the 3rd Arab PublishersConference in Sharjah, UAE. You can find here below the integrality of hisspeech on digital transition, creation, copyright and freedom to publish.

"YourHighness, Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah. YourExcellencies, Ladies, Gentlemen, friends, colleagues, competitors.

Iam honoured and delighted to be attending the Arab Publishers Conference forthe second time. It is particularly important for me wearing my relatively newhat as President of the International Publishers Association (IPA). Our twoassociations share a number of members and in very recent times IPA has beenable to welcome the publishers associations of Saudi Arabia and Tunisia as fullmembers and Jordan as a new provisional member. I hope there will be many morein the future.

Publishingis facing what the Chinese call 'interesting times' as we learn to cope withdigital disruption, new and powerful technology entrants whose aims andobjectives are very different from those of traditional publishers, andGovernments of all persuasions who recognise the importance of publishing ineducation, culture, research and creativity but quite like to tinker with it.

Inaddition, as evidenced by today’s ghastly news from Bangladesh, publishers areunder threat of violence, worldwide.

Now,more than ever, publishers across the world need to stand together, to learnfrom each other, to ensure that the value of their authors' labours are notundermined, and that readers can have maximum access to books, illustrations,journals and knowledge hubs - in other words access to the world ofopportunity.

Conferenceslike this and like the forthcoming IPA Congress organised in partnership withthe UK Publishers Association and the London Book Fair just before the LondonBook Fair in April next year are vital to ensure greater understanding of eachothers' issues and being able to obtain or offer support. Our businesses arebased on commerce, which is their strength; and commerce, particularlyinternational commerce, is based on communication and trust.

TheArabic publishing community is well used to disruption, unfortunately all toofrequently, but that also gives it the flexibility and strength to adapt to newconditions such as digital technology. The youth in the Arab world are morethan digital natives, they are digital junkies (as are my grandchildren). Weneed rapidly to expand what we offer them so that the technology can deliverquality as well as quantity.

Arabicis the fifth most spoken language worldwide with over 200 million nativespeakers. Yet translation to and from Arabic is far less than is surelypossible. The efforts of Kalima and the Sharjah International Book FairTranslation Grant Program here in UAE and of the Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation,which has delivered nearly 200 Arabic and English titles since 2010, may beturning the tide, but so much more could be done and, I suspect, will be done.

Iwant to touch on a sensitive matter, freedom to publish. At the recent GeneralAssembly of the IPA held during the Frankfurt Book Fair our members had somedifficult choices to make about some member applications. Our statutes requiremembers to support the two fundamental pillars of our organization: support forcopyright and support for freedom to publish. The former is vital. Withoutcopyright we and our authors have no businesses and readers will have little orno choice of what to read. There was no dispute that all the associationsapplying to join were able to show their utter and complete commitment to that.

Thesecond pillar is equally important but trickier. Different cultures operate indifferent ways. One person's freedom can be interpreted as another person's crime.The IPA is not there to judge a country's policies but it is there to supportpublishers associations in those countries where they are struggling againstabuses. Of course these things are not black and white. We live in an age ofcomplexity and ambiguity and some of our members believe that membership of IPAgives unjustified legitimacy to some regimes. I disagree and was delighted thatall the applications were accepted by a majority in a democratic vote. Weshall, of course, be monitoring our new members to ensure they comply with ourprinciples by means of a number of measures but my view is that engagementgives us a chance to support our colleagues whereas non-engagement bringsnothing. Fortunately most IPA delegates agreed but we must work to show thatthings can change.

Atthe risk of embarrassing her, her Excellency, Sheikha Bodour's impact onPublishing in this region and her impact on the IPA itself has been immense andis an example to us all. That there is a session tomorrow on Freedom to Publishis a good sign.

Iwould like to thank the Arab Publishers Association for having this conferenceand the Emirati Publishers Association for hosting it, and for the SharjahInternational Book Fair for doing so much to promote reading and publishing. AsI said at the beginning, I am honoured to be here.

Thank you.

Noteto editors:

TheInternational Publishers Association is the international federation ofnational, regional and specialized publishers associations, representing allaspects of global book publishing. IPA is an industry association with ahuman rights mandate. It fights against censorship and promotes literacyand reading, copyright and freedom to publish around the world.  www.internationalpublishers.org.