2026 IPA Prix Voltaire Awarded to El Maraya with Special Award for Mohamed Hashem

The 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire Ceremony took place at the end of the first day of the 35th International Publishers Congress in Kuala Lumpur. Marking the 20th anniversary of the prize, past laureates Khaled Lotfy (Tanmia, Egypt, 2019), Rasha Al Ameer (Dar Al Jadeed, Lebanon, 2021) and Nadia Kandrusevich (Koska, Belarus, 2025) discussed the freedom to publish and the importance of the prize.

During the ceremony, Jessica Sanger, Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee, said: Through this year’s shortlist we yet again see publishers having to operate in exile. Publishers being excluded from book fairs and literary festivals, publishers standing up for diverse ideas and challenging restrictive laws, giving a voice to communities who would otherwise be deprived of the chance to tell their stories. Publishers living in the context of war and still trying to publish books that help make sense of the world around us. As the Freedom to Publish Committee we are very much aware that not only do we have the responsibility of stewarding the prize on the basis of the nominations we receive, but every new year brings a renewed commitment to the laureates of previous years.

With reference to recent news reports, she added: We remain very concerned by the indefensible sentencing of Sihem Bensedrine, our 2009 laureate, to 25 years in prison for her work in defence of freedom in Tunisia.

Accepting the 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire, Yehia Fekry, founder and CEO of El Maraya stated: El Maraya was founded in 2016 with a simple but ambitious mission: to provide a platform for young voices emerging from Egypt’s new democratic and liberal currents, and for critical perspectives that often struggle to find space within dominant intellectual and political discourse. Over time, El Maraya has succeeded in building a wide community of readers and followers. Yet the nature of our cultural mission—and the critical perspectives reflected in our publications—has exposed us to numerous institutional pressures that have challenged our work from the very beginning and continue to do so today. Despite these ongoing pressures, we remain committed to our mission and determined to carry it forward. We remain committed to the right of people to knowledge, and to the right of writers and researchers to express their ideas freely.

Gvantsa Jobava, President of the IPA, said: I firmly believe that publishing is a profession for people of both bravery and responsibility. It demands courage because the progressive ideas that writers of different eras have offered through literature would often never have seen the light of day if publishers had been afraid, afraid of new ideas, of their authors’ boldness, of sharp words, fearless exposure, uncomfortable truths, free expression, and the ideas of freedom; afraid to recognize and embrace the uniqueness of those ideas; And it demands responsibility because the dignity of publishers, authors, and readers alike, tested by the harshest of times, has always depended, and still depends today, on remaining faithful to the responsibilities of our profession. Yet the extraordinary stories of publishers who fought for the freedom to publish, preserved in the twenty-year history of the Prix Voltaire, stand even above bravery and responsibility. They are examples of genuine heroism! Heroism in defense of human dignity; Heroism in the service of the publishing profession; and heroism in the cause of freedom itself. It is in this way that the harmonious alliance between publisher and author is forged, preserving the unique value and enduring dignity of books and the publishing profession.

Accepting the Prix Voltaire Special Award Mohamed Hashem’s daughter, Mirette Hashem said: My father dedicated his life to the belief that books are the cornerstone of a free and enlightened society. As a publisher, he was a staunch defender of freedom of expression, consistently advocating for the right to think, write, and publish without fear in Egypt. He sacrificed much to protect these values, always believing that freedom of expression is essential to a nation’s progress. Thank you for honoring my father’s legacy and for standing with those who champion the freedom to publish and the courage to think freely.

Photos of laureates and the ceremony are available here.

About the 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire

Prix Voltaire nominees are publishers – individuals, groups or organizations – who have typically published controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment, be it from governments, other authorities or private interests. Alternatively, they may be publishers with a distinguished record of upholding the values of freedom to publish and freedom of expression. For the purposes of the IPA Prix Voltaire, the definition of ‘publisher’ is an individual, collective or organization that provides others with the means to share their ideas in written form, including via digital platforms.

The IPA Prix Voltaire, which comes with a CHF 10,000 prize, is made possible by generous contributions from sponsors, all of which are publishing houses and organizations that share the values that the IPA Prix Voltaire recognizes.

2026 IPA Prix Voltaire laureate, the El Maraya for Arts & Culture was founded in Cairo in 2016. With over 250 titles showing their independent editorial stance, they have been exposed to institutional pressures, including exclusion from the Cairo International Book Fair in 2025 and 2026. Their headquarters were raided five times between 2018 and 2024 with staff arrested and all copies of certain books seized and the house banned from republishing them.

About the Prix Voltaire Special Award

Periodically, the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee may confer the Prix Voltaire Special Award, a posthumous honour for individuals who have died recently for exercising their freedom of expression or who were remarkable champions of freedom to publish in their lifetimes. The aim of the award is to give visibility to the laureate’s exceptional engagement for freedom of expression and expose how he or she was silenced. The award should promote the laureate’s legacy and support their family, friends and supporters, if necessary, by helping to ensure that the laureate and their case are not forgotten.

Recipients have typically demonstrated a courageous commitment to freedom of speech through lives spent writing, publishing, or in activism, and have been murdered, put to death, or lost their life in prison.

2026 IPA Prix Voltaire Special Award laureate, Mohamed Hashem, was the courageous founder of Merit Publishing House, an independent Egyptian publisher dedicated to freedom of expression and to promoting emerging writers and marginalized voices in the Arab world since 1998. A vocal anti-authoritarian activist, Hashem co-founded the Kefaya Movement in 2004 and the Writers and Artists for Change Movement in 2005, which he hosted at Merit, later opening the publishing house into a permanent headquarters for the January 25th Revolution of 2011, providing demonstrators with crucial aid.

The 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire shortlist was announced at the World Expression Forum (WEXFO) in Lillehammer, Norway, on 1 June 2026.

• Dar Al Jundi Publishing, Samir Al Jundi, Palestine
• El Maraya, Yehia Fekry, Egypt
• Freedom Letters, Georgy Urushadze, Russia
• Gantala Press, Faye Cura, Philippines
• KompasGuide, Vitali Ziusko, Russia
• Sam Yan Press, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, Thailand

The current sponsors of the IPA Prix Voltaire are, in alphabetical order:

• Al Dar Al Masriah Al Lubnaniah (Egypt)
• Albert Bonniers Förlag (Sweden)
• Changbi Publishing (Korea)
• H.Beck (Germany)
• Dar El Shorouk (Egypt)
• Nowon Mungo (Korea)
• Sahoipyoungnon Publishing (Korea)

Previous laureates of the Prix Voltaire are: