For IPA, Thursday began with the launch of our brand new report on the State of the Freedom to Publish Globally. IPA President Gvantsa Jobava and Chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish Commitee, Jessica Sänger, opened proceedings before authors Jimena Ledezma, Emma Viero and Seoyoon Yang (the fourth author, Gregory Wagner, was unfortunately absent) presented their comprehensive look at 22 markets and the trends the report identifies as well as the tools available to publishers facing restrictions. You can read the report here.
From midday, IPA joined colleagues from across Europe at the annual Rendez-Vous of the Federation of European Publishers. The programme looked at the challenges facing the book sector in Ukraine and then recent developments in AI cases in France and Germany.
The afternoon took us back to the Global Stage for two sessions organised by UN Publications. The first, Still Burning: The Climate Crisis We Stopped Talking About, asked why climate has slipped down the political agenda while geopolitical conflicts dominate the news, who benefits from that loss of attention, and how publishers can help return the issue to public debate as 2030 draws near. It was followed directly by From Apathy to Action: Fight for Democracy in the Age of Bad News, which considered how stepping back from a relentless news cycle can feed disengagement, and how publishers might respond by championing books that offer solutions, varied perspectives and lessons from history. The panel also discussed the responsibility of technology companies to build platforms that open up dialogue instead of reinforcing echo chambers.
The IPA enjoyed the rest of the time at the fair to meet members and network as well as listening to other interesting discussion, like the European and International Booksellers Federation presentation of their toolkit on reading promotion. You can read that here. And a cooler but brighter evening welcomed people back out into the Frankfurt evening.
Friday starts early, with the open meeting of IPA’s Educational Publishers Forum, where a new report will be released, and, at the same time, Publishing Equality: Shaping the future of the book industry, a session organised by IPA and UN Women ECA on the Global Stage where a new pledge on gender equality will be signed. You can see the pledge here. Gender equality Later in the day come Women Leading Cultural Change and Beyond the headlines, where authors from countries in crisis read from their work.