A Nigerian, Uche Anioke has been elected into the Executive of the world’s largest federation of publishers; The International Publishers Association (IPA), Geneva, Switzerland, which was established in 1896.
IPA is an industry body with a human rights mandate, whose mission is to promote and protect publishing and raise awareness of publishing as a force for economic, cultural and social development. Working in cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and other supranational bodies.
The IPA champions the interests of book and journal publishing at national and supranational level. Internationally, the IPA actively opposes censorship and promotes copyright, freedom to publish (including through the IPA Prix Voltaire), and literacy.
Hon Uche Anioke who’s also the National President of Nigeria Publishers Association(NPAN) is among the executives elected after a 12-day virtual voting.
The outcome of the online election that spanned 2 weeks of voting (9th -23rd September 2022) was made public in the press release dated 29th September 2022 by James Taylor, the Director, Communications & Freedom to publish, of the International Publishers Association (IPA)
Arising from the meeting of the general assembly of the IPA, Karine PANSA (Brazil) was confirmed the president-elect while Gvantsa JOBAVA (Georgia) became IPA Vice-President elect.
According to the release, IPA elected one new full member and three new provisional members.
Other Election Results:
Full Membership:
Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA)
Provisional Membership:
Asociación Gremial de Editores de Guatemala (AGEG)
Associação Moçambicana de Editores e Livreiros (AMEL)
Syrian Publishers Association (SPA)
Election results and appointments into IPA’s executive committee for the next three years.
Executive Committee:
Uchenna Cyril Anioke (Nigeria)
Dante Cid (Brazil)
Sharon Hague (UK, statutory appointment)
Lawrence Njagi (Kenya, re-elected)
Christian Schumacher-Gebler (Germany, statutory appointment)
Heidar Ingi Svansson (Iceland, re-elected)
Chunchi Yu (China, statutory appointment)
Freedom to Publish Committee:
Zeynep Atiker (Turkey, re-elected)
Sherif Bakr (Egypt, re-elected)
Sarah Crozier (USA)
Simon De Jocas (Canada)
Myung-Hwan Kim (South Korea, re-elected)
Membership Committee :
Maria Pallante (USA, re-elected)
Anna Baijars (Finland, re-elected)
Reacting to his election, Hon. Anioke said,
“It is a call to service. It is a call to show that all is well with my State, my Country and indeed my continent, Africa. I will devote the next 3 years to showcasing Nigerian and African publishing potentials by paying utmost attention to freedom to publish.”
Uche Anioke from Enugu State, Nigeria, holds both Bachelor degree in Mass Communication and a Masters degree in Mass Communication, from University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and by this election, he’s expected not only to participate but to lead Nigerian Publishers’ delegation to the forthcoming biennial International Publishers Congress billed for November, 2022 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
