As Cairo International Book Fair starts today, one Egyptian Bookseller and Publishing House will not be attending. While Khaled Lotfy, co-founder of the Tanmia Bookshop and founder of Tanmia Publishing House, sits in jail serving his five-year sentence, his publishing house has also been excluded from the Fair by the organisers, citing security concerns.
On 24 December 2019, the Egyptian Military Court of Cassation, following 11 postponements, finally rejected Egyptian publisher Khaled Lotfy’s final possible appeal against his 5-year prison sentence for publishing an Egyptian edition of Uri Bar Joseph’s The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel. Only a Presidential pardon can now free Khaled Lotfy from prison.
On 16 December 2019 the seventh list of books for the UN SDG Book Club were announced. The list of titles in all six official UN languages, aimed at children aged 6-12, focuses on the seventh sustainable development goal – affordable and clean energy.
The second installment of IPA's reports on licensing practices in a global digital market for education and research focuses on educational publishing. It has been drafted by Graham Taylor who brings nearly 50 years of publishing industry experience to this detailed review of the sector and how different publishers and goverments are adopting digital resources.
Close scrutiny showed a more complex but also more positive answer for both the UK and US.
IPA D&I envoy, Michiel Kolman interviews Elsevier’s Simon Holt and Springer Nature’s Kirsty Bone about their experiences of having a disability and working in the publishing industry. This is a long but fascinating read.
October and the first days of November were again very busy, with visits to four different countries and three book fairs in the course of three weeks.
SCCR 39 concluded this evening with an agreement found on how to keep the Exceptions and Limitations discussion moving forward and the other agenda items wrapped up and a possible new issue raised in the chamber.
The second day of discussions on the broadcasting treaty were mainly conducted behind closed doors with the plenary chamber finally filling at 17:40 for a presentation of conclusions.
The first day closed with Dr Kenneth Crews waiting to be grilled by delegates and observers. He was given the opportunity this morning, but the highlights today were the side events and the ripples from some late-night messages to delegates.