“We are living in a time of plummeting attention spans. A time of too much
information and still somehow never enough. A time of war on facts and
science. This is an age when our minds are crying out for more nutritious
information, more contemplation. This is the power of a book in an age like
ours. Books are our antidote. Libraries, our sanctuaries.”

This was part of the message from United Nations Undersecretary General,
Melissa Fleming, at the 34 th International Publishers Congress, held recently in
Guadalajara. A congress that had the participation of more than 200 publishers
from more than 40 countries.

It is well known that IPA’s two pillars are copyright and freedom to publish,
which took up a good part of the discussions during the congress.
The issue of freedom to publish led us, in a broader context, to analyze the
situation of our freedoms around the world, as well as the global state of
health of democracies.

As part of a captivating common thread, the illustrious writer, historian and
publisher Enrique Krauze opened the congress with a historical and
philosophical explanation of the value of democracy and how it can be lost.

“We have confused or amalgamated democracy and republic. They should be,
and in many cases have been, compatible and complementary, but they are not
identical. Democracy is the political task of citizens; the republic is the
institutional and legal framework that makes it possible. But democracy
always runs the risk of being corrupted into demagoguery, and it is then that
republic and democracy can become antithetical.”

“To prevent demagogic corruption, the Greeks devised various rules to remove
from office leaders who, abusing popularity, sought an excessive
concentration of power. However, in the end Athens succumbed to tyrannies
and subsequent Macedonian and Roman domination, precisely due to the
deification of power. Greece never regained its democracy.”

Later in the conference it was the turn of Staffan Lindberg, who leads the
Swedish V-Dem institute, which annually researches and provides a study on
the state of democracy around the world. The information he presented was
truly alarming.

Democracy for the average person in the world has returned to 1985 levels.
Since 2009, almost 15 years in a row, the proportion of the world's population living in autocratic regimes has exceeded the proportion living in democratic systems.

In 2003, 50% of the world's population lived in autocratic regimes. By 2023,
that percentage increased to 73%. This phenomenon leads to the erosion of
freedom of expression and the extinction of reliable, transparent and accurate
elections. Really concerning.

We then had the opportunity to listen to Oleksandra Matviichuk, director of
the Center for Civil Liberties of Ukraine and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who
gave a chilling account of the violent clash of an autocracy with a democracy.

At some other conference I heard someone say that war is the greatest
demonstration of human stupidity. Oleksandra made it very clear to us, with a
heartbreaking testimony.

“Authoritarian countries consider people as objects of control and deny them
rights and freedoms. Democracies consider people, their rights and freedoms
to be of the highest value.”

“This is not just a war between two states. This is the war between two
systems – authoritarianism and democracy. Russia wants to convince the entire world that freedom, democracy and human rights are fake values. Because
they do not protect anyone in the war. Russia wants to convince that a state
with a powerful military potential and nuclear weapons can break the world
order, dictate its rules to entire international community and even forcibly
change internationally recognized borders. And if Russia succeeds, it will
encourage other authoritarian leaders in various parts of the world to do the
same.”

“Nevertheless, these dramatic times provide us an opportunity to reveal the
best in us – to be courageous, to fight for freedom, to take the burden of
responsibility, to make difficult but right choices, to help each other. Now
more than ever, we keenly feel what it means to be human.”

Oleksandra was hailed by a standing ovation of over 200 congress attendants
on the verge of tears. Often these conflicts seem so distant to us that we feel
indifferent to them. The devastating testimony of one of the victims allowed
us to empathetically recognize the dimension of the tragedy, with an empathy
that books help us develop.

In this context, there is much that we as publishers can and currently do. We
provide curated and validated information against fake news. Through
reading, we provide essential tools to develop critical thinking, which is one of
the fundamental bases of democracy.

I feel proud to be a publisher, bearing in mind the contribution we can and
must make to a better world.