Melville House Books

In seeming reaction to a suit brought by Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shirin Ebadi against the U.S. government for blocking the American publication of her memoirs, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control yesterday “eased a controversial ban on publications from Iran, Sudan and Cuba.” According to a Reuters wire report, “The new rule allows U.S. publishers to engage in ‘most ordinary publishing activities’ with people in Cuba, Iran and Sudan, while maintaining restrictions on interactions with government officials and agents of those countries,” and while “maintaining an embargo on official documents.” Says a Treasury Department spokesman, undersecretary Stuart Levey, “OFAC’s previous guidance was interpreted by some as discouraging the publication of dissident speech from within these oppressive regimes. That is the opposite of what we want.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.