A coalition of leading publisher and author associations has written to the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") of the Treasury Department demanding that it revise trade regulations that effectively prohibit American publishers from publishing books and journal articles written by Syrian authors.
The Association of American University Presses ("AAUP"), the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishers division ("AAP/PSP"), and PEN American Center ("PEN") have condemned the portion of the amended and re-issued Syrian sanctions regulations dictating that American publishers may not enter into transactions for Syrian works not yet fully completed, may not provide 'substantive or artistic alterations or enhancements' to Syrian works, and may not promote or market Syrian works.
The letter states that the Syrian Sanctions Regulations violate federal law and the First Amendment, and by severely restricting the ability of American publishers to publish works by Syrian academics, dissidents, and opponents of the Assad regime and/or ISIS, make a terrible policy decision at odds with this country's longstanding traditions at a time when the American public most needs to educate itself about Syria.
In light of the important First Amendment values at stake, Congress twice passed laws making clear that OFAC has no authority to regulate 'information or informational materials.'
In 2004, the coalition sued OFAC for similar trade sanctions governing works penned by authors in Iran, Cuba, and the Sudan. OFAC quickly revised those regulations and created a general license permitting all publishers to engage in any transactions 'necessary and ordinarily incident to' publishing and marketing written works from those countries, with limited exceptions. When the coalition agreed to voluntarily dismiss the suit, OFAC stipulated that it would 'take [similar] policy considerations into account in the event that it issues regulations pertaining to additional countries under trading sanction.' Despite that stipulation, OFAC failed to include such protections in recent Syrian sanctions regulations – imperiling the US publication of many valuable political and scientific publications.
