UPRISINGS RAISE SPRING HOPES FOR ARABIC PUBLISHERS
February 1st, 2012
BY PAUL COCHRANE IN BEIRUT
THE 'ARAB Spring' uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past year have had a mixed effect on Arabic publishing. Book sales have plunged due to instability, and while some countries have loosened up on censorship, others have clamped down. Still, there is guarded optimism about the future among publishers.
"The Arab Spring affected all business last year, as people were not interested in reading books," said André Gaspard, Managing Director of Arabic language publishing house Dar al Saqi, the Beirut, ...
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