Censorship of Iranian manuscripts interferes with scholarship, science
By: Melissa Smith
Issue date: 3/17/04 Section: News
The U.S. Treasury Department has sent out letters warning publishers of possible criminal implications of editing manuscripts from Iran. The letters warn against the editing or translation of any literature from Iran, from fiction and poetry to scientific and historical writings, without a government license.
Such restrictions could have negative consequences on scholastic and academic work, which worries some Webster University professors.
Tahmineh Entessar, lecturer in international relations, said that such restrictions are not justifiable under any circumstances. She believes that scholarship and academia must remain free from any political pressure.
"Academic and scholarly material have always been exempt from any political interference," Entessar said. "Unfortunately, under the Bush Administration and the climate of fear it has created, traditions and laws are routinely ignored. There is no doubt that this will deny the academic community in general, and the scientific community in particular, access to valuable scholarly writings from Iran."
Larry Baden, an assistant professor who teaches "Law and the Media" at Webster, said the letters from the Treasury Department are problematic from the standpoint of free expression and free speech.
"Is it legal for the Treasury Department to send out the letters? Yes," Baden said. "Would a court uphold the legality of it? I hope not."
Although Baden doesn't think anything will come of the letters, he said that it could have a potential chilling effect on publishing.
Entessar hopes that the academic community will protest the restrictions.
"The academic community in the United States has always defended the rights of international scholars to remain actively engaged in scholarly exchange with their U.S. counterparts," she said. "I do not think that other countries would put such a ban on publications from the U.S. scientific community."
The letters are based in part on the trade embargo the United States has with Iran, which prohibits most trade with the country without a government license. Trade embargoes, however, mostly apply to goods, not intellectual property.
