TEHRAN -- MP Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, who is also the director of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, has said that there is no country that does not engage in censorship of books.
Speaking at a meeting held by the Iran Public Libraries Foundation on Sunday to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the establishment of the foundation, he added, “I agree with the view of the president (Hassan Rouhani) that people comment about every issue, but this doesn’t mean that, as a government, we do not have a responsibility about books.”
“There is no one in the world who would say that all the material found in books is always useful,” Haddad-Adel stated.
“We should apply rules rationally as to what may or may not be permitted in books,” he added.
“The censorship of books must be rational, not mechanical,” he stated.
Haddad-Adel lamented the high price of books and said, “It is hard for ordinary people to buy books, so the development of public libraries should be a priority, because as economic difficulties increase people drop books from their family budgets.”
MMS/YAW
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