TEHRAN – Mohammad-Ali Jafarieh, the director of Saless, a major publishing company in Tehran, has said that Iranian publishers are willing to join the Universal Copyright Convention of Berne.

He made the remarks in a session held at Iran’s stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Friday, the third day. 

“Joining the copyright convention in actuality with its economic implications is the request of publishers active in publishing books in Iran,” he said.

“These publishers wrote a letter to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance 12 years ago and asked to stop the distribution of governmental papers. We believe that a clean atmosphere for publishing will only be achieved by joining the universal copyright in the country.

“We also know that joining the convention may not be to our benefit, but we want to experience it and become universal.

“The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance needs to ratify a new regulation to help support both the publishers and the writers,” he added.

Tehran Publishers and Booksellers Association (TPBA) Director Mahmud Amuzgar, also attending the session, said that Iranian publishers would like a new law to be approved that would increase their trust.
“The truth is that publishers in Iran have not paid sufficient attention to worldwide publishing issues. We try to make the best of this opportunity to observe the copyright law and increase our income as well,” he remarked.

However, the representative of the Assembly of Islamic Revolution’s Publishers Hossein Shahmoradi, attending the session, criticized Iran’s efforts in joining the Universal Copyright Convention of Berne.

“The advantages of joining the convention are, no doubt, fewer than the disadvantages. As long as we cannot support the rights of Iranian publishers, it is not right (wise) to think of advancing the interests of foreign publishers,” he concluded.

RM/YAW