9 June 2004
INDONESIAN PUBLISHER WINS FREE EXPRESSION AWARD
The publisher of Indonesia's most celebrated living writer, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, has been awarded an international prize in recognition of a "lifetime of courageous publishing," reports PEN American Center.
Joesoef Isak, who heads the Indonesian publishing house Hasta Mitra, is this year's winner of the Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award, which honours book publishers who demonstrate courage in the face of political persecution. Named after Jeri Laber, a former executive director of Helsinki Watch, the award is given annually by the Association of American Publishers' International Freedom to Publish Committee (IFPC).
During the rein of former dictator Soeharto, Isak was jailed without charge for 10 years from 1967 to 1977. Upon his release, he launched Hasta Mitra, which published many of Ananta Toer's books, including the banned Buru Quartet. Hasta Mitra also published a book that revealed U.S. intelligence documents linking the Central Intelligence Agency with the 1965 coup that brought Soeharto to power.
For more information, see: http://www.pen.org/freedom/pressrel/JL_2004.html
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