Freedom to publish : a report on obstacles to freedom in publishing /

A brief, incisive report on obstacles to freedom in publishing (and therefore freedom-to-write, freedom-to-read), prepared by British author-publisher Calvocoressi for the International Publishers Association. ""Outside the world's avowed ideological and military autocracies,"" Calvocoressi concludes, ""freedom to publish is widespread but vulnerable."" He first takes up official censorship--most prevalent as post-publication prosecution, and directed not only at what's legally forbidden but at whatever the government, ""regardless of the letter of the law, wishes to suppress."" Legal guarantees are no safeguard, moreover: ""Judging by their constitutional appearances, Brazil and Norway are very much alike. But this has not been so."" In the area of national security, only the US has, from the outset, given freedom to publish priority; ""elsewhere. . . it has seemed normal to give governments the right to veil information."" Instanced, among others, are Britain's ""heavy-handed restrictiveness,"" West Germany's reaction against internal disruption, Yugoslavia's ban on the expression of Serb or Croat nationalism--the last, one of several cases of worthy ends, dubious means. In the area of regulating morals, usually sexual morals, the gamut of permissiveness runs from Denmark to Ireland (with some wavering, now, at both ends). These apart, the report takes note of indirect, but no less operative, constraints: libel law--and the conflict between freedom to publish and the right of the defendant to a fair trial; state competition, patronage, and taxation; social pressures and special-interest groups. (When does the right to protest, democratically, become the desire to impose, autocratically?) A final section reviews the takeover of publishing businesses by nonpublishers--and the attendant shift from money-as-a-means-to-publishing-books to publishing-books-as-one-means-of-making-money. Many current US issues are omitted; but the overview provides a framework, alert to implications, in which to view them. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.