Suit against Treasury Department aims to protect First Amendment

Freedom of the press is at risk, scholarly journal publisher says

College Park, MD (September 28, 2004) - A group of publishers and authors filed suit against a U.S. Treasury office in a New York federal court yesterday.

The group, which includes the American Institute of Physics, is opposing the attempts of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to control publishing activities involving information and literature from countries under trade embargo such as Iran, Cuba, and the Sudan.

"The freedom of the press is at risk," said Dr. Marc H. Brodsky, chair of the American Association of Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division (AAP/PSP). Brodsky is also executive director of the American Institute of Physics, based in College Park, Maryland. "Our readers have the right to information regardless of the country of origin. Publishers should not have to seek the government's permission to do business as usual."

Along with other publishing groups, AAP/PSP is asking the court to strike down OFAC regulations that require U.S. publishers working with materials from embargoed countries to seek a license from the government to perform routine editorial activities, such as reordering paragraphs and correcting syntax or grammar. The groups also seek a preliminary injunction against enforcement of these regulations and a hearing for a permanent injunction. The groups challenge the regulations on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment and legislation enacted by Congress to exempt information and informational materials from economic embargoes.

For violating OFAC's regulations, publishers face the risk of incurring prison sentences of up to ten years or a fine of up to a million dollars per violation.

"Our most basic liberties are violated when we, as publishers, have to either ask the government for permission to publish or risk serious civil and criminal penalties if we do not obtain permission," said Brodsky. "Because of these rules, there are publishers who are censoring themselves."

For example, the rulings prevented Iranian geologists from publishing a paper in the journal Mathematical Geology; the work presented a new methodology relating to earthquake prediction.

"This research contains information that could assist seismologists right here in the US to help their communities better prepare for earthquakes," said Brodsky. "Yet the current regulations impede the publication of this helpful material."

"Information and informational materials" are exempt from trade embargoes by the 1994 Free Trade in Ideas Amendment and the 1988 Berman Amendment to the Trading with the Enemy and the International Emergency Economic Powers Acts. However, the lawsuit contends that OFAC regulations directly contradict these exemptions and endanger publishers, authors and the public's constitutional rights.

"This is not a partisan issue—the regulations have been enforced by more than one administration," Brodsky said. "Publishers shouldn't have to be fearful of either party's bureaucratic regulations when they receive a manuscript from abroad. We, as publishers, have a responsibility to vet the material we publish for accuracy, reliability, and its contribution to scholarship, regardless of the country of origin, without the government's approval."

Deciding that it is not violating any law, the American Institute of Physics has continued to consider manuscripts for publication regardless of the author's location.

The suit was filed by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP), a trade association of 124 non-profit scholarly publishers; AAP/PSP, a trade association of the leading publishers in science, medicine, technology, business, law, and the humanities ; PEN American Center, an organization of over 2,500 prominent novelists, poets, essayists, translators, playwrights, and editors; and Arcade Publishing Inc., an independent book publisher.

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a not-for-profit membership corporation chartered in New York State in 1931 for the purpose of promoting the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare. It is the mission of the Institute to serve physics, astronomy, and related fields of science and technology by serving its Member Societies and their associates, individual scientists, educators, R&D leaders, and the general public with programs, services and publications.

Contact:

Marc H. Brodsky (AIP)
301-209-3131 (office)