Sage is latest publisher to warn of China censorship pressures
peter.suber's bookmarks 2017-11-27
Summary:
"Another leading academic publisher has been warned that it may have to censor in China or be forced out of the market, as Beijing intensifies its control over foreign education and publishing.
Sage Publishing, a US-based company that produces more than 1,000 academic journals, said it had not yet received a formal request to “remove or block access to certain documents or content within China”....
China has extended its censorship campaign to foreign publishers this year, as part of President Xi Jinping’s wider crackdown on dissent and criticism. Before Sage, only three other global academic publishers have admitted to facing pressure from Beijing’s censors.
The International Publishers’ Association, a global trade body, said that China was putting the industry in an “impossible situation” where publishers must compromise their commitment to free speech or risk losing access to one of the world’s biggest markets.
The climate of fear is spreading beyond China, with Allen & Unwin, a prominent Australian publisher, recently dropping a book about rising Chinese influence in Australia because of concerns about possible reprisals from Beijing...."