Venezuelan publisher receives award from US book association

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Venezuela’s few remaining independent publishers is being honored by the Association of American Publishers. The trade association announced Wednesday that Editorial Dahbar has been given the AAP’s International Freedom to Publish/Jeri Laber Award. The publisher’s books include interviews with political prisoners and critiques of the country’s criminal justice system. In its announcement, AAP noted that speech is frequently censored in Venezuela, authors are harassed, and Dahbar books are hard to find in stores affiliated with the government. Sergio Dahbar runs the publisher and has alleged that the government’s “communications hegemony is silencing the media and journalists.”