President Hassan Rouhani emphasized the important role that authors and publishers play in social and cultural development, and said with the advanced media in contemporary times, “one might think it would be the end of paper publications, but the truth is that books will never lose their status among people.”
He was speaking at the 32nd ceremony of Iran National Award for the Book of the Year and the 22nd round of Iran World Award for the Book of the Year, held on Sunday (Feb. 8) at Tehran’s Organization of Islamic Conference Summit Hall.
The president, who inaugurated the event, pointed to the emergence of several advanced media in the world since 150 years such as radio, cinema, Internet, social networks and other different means of communication and said, “despite all these, the joy man experiences in reading a good book, cannot be found in any other activity.”
He underlined the significance of books in all divine religions as all the holy prophets were sent a Heavenly Book by the Almighty to guide the people, MNA reported.
Fair and Just
Rouhani asserted that the 1979 Islamic Revolution stems from books and writings of Imam Khomeini and it was a revolution of minds and thoughts. “All writers and scholars have to revitalize the freshness of Iran’s revolution and its concepts.”
Considering criticisms in books and publishing arena, the chief executive highlighted that critics have “to be just and fair and criticism has to consider the nature and essence of a subject rather than the marginal issues.”
He stressed that books have to be evaluated by professionals in the field and the government should leave the assessment process to scholars and authors. “Writers and publishers have to help us in defining the evaluation system.”
He also emphasized the need “to limit censorship to certain categories and said morality, sanctities, security and national interests should be the defining guidelines.” This arena should also be handed to outstanding authors and publishers.
Noting the low rate of the book reading culture in Iran he called for examining the issue by writers and urged them to offer solutions. All obstacles in the way of publishing a book, from its writing to its dissemination, must be removed.
He urged the revolutionary authors to clarify the ambiguities and explain the Islamic Revolution explicitly to the youth and help them maintain the concepts of independence and freedom.
Stressing that authors have to boost national spirit and hope, Rouhani concluded that writers have the onerous task of promoting unity in the country and decreasing global tensions to create a peaceful universe.
Awards
Rouhani also presented trophies to the winners of national and world sections of the Book of the Year to eight top foreign writers, translators, editors and publishers from Iran, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, the Netherlands and the US.
In the national section, a total of 23,721 titles, published for the first time from March 2014-February 2015 were evaluated first, and 238 works were selected by four jurors. In the final stage, 8 books were selected as the top works and 25 titles were named.
In the world section, 1700 books were evaluated, of which 180 titles were selected. And in the final round 10 works were chosen as the best.
The ceremony was attended by several high-ranking officials including Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ali Jannati, cultural deputy at the ministry Seyed Abbas Salehi, director of the National Library Seyed Reza Salehi-Amiri, cultural advisor to the president Hessameddin Ashena, and scientific secretaries of the Awards Hojatoleslam Mahdavirad and Mohsen Javadi.
