On Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Norwegian publisher Bjorn Smith-Simonsen, in his capacity as chair of the International Publishers Association’s Freedom to Publish Committee, suggested that one of the first potential steps toward resolving the issue of censorship in China was to encourage the Publishers Association of China [PAC] to join the IPA: “They [PAC] could eventually become a member of IPA one day provided a few conditions are fulfilled: for example that cultural studios could become members of PAC. And provided IPA membership criteria are fulfilled — free enterprise and a democratic association structure,” he said.

Watch our video interview with Smith-Simonsen for further discussion of the issue.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NUx_8G9tj8

[This report corrects the story “Dissidents Have Their Day” from the October 15th issue of Publishing Perspectives Frankfurt Edition, which stated it was China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) that might be able join the IPA. We regret the error].