French publisher arrested by UK anti-terrorist police

London Book Fair – an incident concerning rights

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Cover of La Fabrique de L'homme Endette – Essai sur la condition néolibérale by Maurizio Lazzarato – published by Éditions la Fabrique | french publisher
Cover of La Fabrique de L'homme Endette – Essai sur la condition néolibérale by Maurizio Lazzarato – published by Éditions la Fabrique

Ernest Moret 28, a foreign rights manager for French publisher Éditions la Fabrique, was taken into custody by two plain clothes anti-terrorist policemen as he arrived at St Pancras on a train on the evening of 17 April 2023, from Paris to attend the London Book Fair. In custody, he was questioned for six hours about his participation in protests in France, and his laptop and cell phone were seized. Refusing to reveal the passwords to the confiscated laptop and phone, he was transferred to a police station in Islington, where he remained in custody till Tuesday and was later released on bail. 

His colleague Stella Magliani-Belkacem, said to The Guardian, “When we were on the platform, two people, a woman, and a guy, told us they were counter-terrorist police. They showed a paper called section 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and said they had the right to ask him about demonstrations in France.”

Éditions la Fabrique is known for publishing radical left authors while Moret had planned more than 30 meetings at the book fair. Magliani-Belkacem told the Guardian, “When we were on the platform, two people, a woman, and a guy, told us they were counter-terrorist police. They showed a paper called section 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and said they had the right to ask him about demonstrations in France.”

A joint press release from Verso Books based in London and Éditions la Fabrique condemned Moret’s treatment as ‘scandalous.’ It said, “The police officers claimed that Ernest had participated in demonstrations in France as a justification for this act – a quite remarkably inappropriate statement for a British police officer to make, and which seems to clearly indicate complicity between French and British authorities on this matter.” It added, “We consider these actions to be outrageous and unjustifiable infringements of basic principles of the freedom of expression and an example of the abuse of anti-terrorism laws.”

Moret’s lawyer, Richard Parry, accused the UK authorities of an “abuse of power” in their treatment of his client. Present during one of Moret’s police interviews, he said Moret was asked if he supported the French president. He was also asked whether he attended demonstrations in France against Macron’s controversial pension plans and asked to name anti-government authors in the catalog of La Fabrique. He refused to answer all these questions.

Moret returned to France after being released on Tuesday, while his iPhone and Macbook remain in the custody of the British police. He has been ordered to report to the police in four weeks. 

Parry has demanded full disclosure of any involvement of the French authorities in his client’s arrest, as questions were asked in the National Assembly in France about Moret’s treatment. The French government is also being urged by French MPs to explain its role in the arrest of Moret in London on Tuesday.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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