The publishers of the two largest associations, UIKS and UPIS, and independent publishers are demanding that the Ministry of Culture cancel the competition for the purchase of books by libraries, among other things, because it only supports one, the Cyrillic alphabet.
The leading associations of publishers demand that the Ministry of Culture cancel the existing competition for the purchase of books by libraries, and to announce a new one with modified conditions. They request that the Ministry inform them of its decision by March 15.
The request, which was sent on Wednesday, was signed by the publishers gathered in the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of Serbia, the Association of Professional Publishers of Serbia (UIKS and UPIS) and independent publishers.
The publisher's position is that this kind of competition is unacceptable, because it is discriminatory and illegitimate, opposed to the interests of publishers, libraries and readers, as well as the interests of the overall culture and society. The leading publishers in Serbia do not agree to the competition under the existing conditions.
At the end of February, the Ministry of Culture announced a competition for the purchase of books under changed conditions, unfavorable for publishers.
The competition was not announced for editions published in one year, in the last year, as has always been the case and as is the practice of all other competitions announced by the Ministry, but refers to two years: 2024 and 2025.
The second concerns the restrictions for publishers who publish books in the Serbian language: the competition commission will evaluate only those of their books that are printed in Cyrillic. This means that it is not important for the Ministry and its commission to buy quality and important books for the libraries, but Cyrillic ones. It also further means that, in the opinion of the Ministry, the Latin alphabet is not desirable in libraries, and that, under the pretext of the struggle for a national script, books become another tool for strengthening nationalism.
Among other things, the publishers are now asking "to enable the equal participation of all high-quality publications in the Serbian language, regardless of the typeface they are printed in, the genre they belong to, or the publisher by which they were published, in order to preserve the diversity of collections in libraries", as well as "separate the tenders for the purchase of 2024 and 2025 and respect the usual budget dynamics, without reducing the funds intended for each year individually".
In the end, they say that "if the Ministry of Culture does not accept the demands of the leading associations of publishers and independent publishers in Serbia, we will be forced to act in order to protect publishing in Serbia and the cultural and social interests and values that the Ministry calls into question with its decisions."
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