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OFAC REGULATIONS & PEN'S LAWSUIT AGAINST THE TREASURY DEPT.
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In March 2004, PEN American Center sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department expressing its deep concern about the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
regulations that effectively bar U.S. publishers from publishing books
and journal articles originating in countries such as Iran, Cuba and
Sudan that are subject to U.S. trade embargoes. PEN believes that any
extension of trade sanctions to literature and any other information
and informational materials flies in the face of international law,
most notably Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
and Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights, which
guarantees that the right to freedom of thought and expression
"includes freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of
all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in
print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice."
In that same month, PEN called on over 2,000 members and supporters of the PEN Campaign for Core Freedoms to also write to the Treasury Department to express their concern about the regulations.
In May 2004, PEN joined publishing groups in renewing concern about the regulations and calling for their revision after OFAC's April 2004 letter to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE),
was reported to have resolved those concerns. PEN continued to press
for the revision of OFAC's regulations, stating that it may eventually
ask a court to rule on the legality and constitutionality of the
regulations.
In September 2004, PEN did join the Association of
American University Presses (AAUP), the Association of American
Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (AAUP/PSP),
and Arcade Publishing in filing suit against the Treasury Department. Shortly after this lawsuit was filed, a partner suit was filed by Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian author and human
rights activist, in protest of the restrictions on publishing her work in English.
Finally, in December 2004, the Treasury Department issued
new regulations that explicitly permit Americans to engage in
"all transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to the publishing
and marketing of manuscripts, books, journals, and newspapers in paper
or electronic format." This includes substantive editing and marketing
of written materials, collaborations between authors, and the payment
of advances and royalties.
Click here for all legal documents related to the OFAC case. |
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