OSCE media freedom watchdog asks the US to abolish 'book embargo'

VIENNA, 30 September 2004 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, has asked the United States to abolish regulations that require publishers and authors to seek a licence from the Treasury Department to publish literature from embargoed countries such as Cuba, Iran and Sudan in the U.S.

"Today, American publishers might face prison sentences and high fines if they fail to ask for a government licence to publish literature from these countries," Haraszti said in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"Information materials were exempted from embargos by Congress in 1988 but all administrations since then have failed to fully implement that exemption."

In the letter, the OSCE Media Representative called the regulations an "impediment to the free flow of information, which is a major Helsinki and OSCE commitment."

"It is a barrier for citizens of your country in seeking information and a barrier for authors - among them writers banned in their own countries - in reaching U.S. audiences," Haraszti added.

Despite a second Congressional ruling in 1994, called 'Free Trade in Ideas', the restrictions were not abolished but they ceased to be applied. However, Treasury rulings since 2003 have again upheld the limitations on information materials and started enforcing them.

Recently, publishers' and authors' associations asked a U.S. federal court to strike down regulations that require publishers to seek a licence for literature from the embargoed countries.

"If a similar situation had existed in Hungary in the 1970s and 1980s, then my books would have not been able to reach the American public," Haraszti said.

"If, for example, Hungary had been under an embargo, then I, as an author blacklisted in my country, would not have been able to work with U.S. publishers and newspapers to prepare my manuscripts for publication. No publisher would touch them for fear of prosecution."