Publishing OK’d amid embargoes

American publishers are free to engage in publishing activities with people in Cuba, Iran and Sudan without fear of violating U.S. economic penalties against those countries, the Bush administration said.

The Treasury Department office that enforces embargoes against those countries issued a rule that lists the permissible activities related to the publishing and marketing of manuscripts, books, journals and newspapers in paper or electronic form.

U.S. publishers do not need U.S. government permission to go ahead with such ventures, the department said Wednesday.

“This is a victory for freedom of speech,” said Marc Brodsky, executive director of the American Institute of Physics and chairman of the Assn. of American Publishers’ professional and scholarly publishing division.

The requirement to seek government permission had scared off publishers interested in pursuing these activities, Brodsky said.