The International Authors Forum was launched at WIPO in Geneva on the 16th December with Trevor Clarke, Assistant Director General for the Culture and Creative Industries Sector, giving the Forum a warm welcome. Maureen Duffy, FRSL author, poet and the BCC’s President of Honour played a leading role in setting up the Forum and in her speech, Maureen explained that purpose of the Forum was to bring together authors’ organisations worldwide to discuss issues, share information and take action. Maureen also emphasised the importance of its work and said “We are very grateful for the warm welcome from WIPO and look forward to further collaboration and to making the author’s voice heard globally”. Other speakers were Roberto Cabot ,Robert Levine and Joanne Harris.
In her blog for December 18th http://joannechocolat.tumblr.com/post/70378325888/pro-or-anti-copyright, author Joanne Harris writes about her trip to Geneva, the launch of the Forum and the importance of respect for authors’ rights.
Mike Holderness, Chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance, also present at the launch, commented on the emergence of the Forum saying “WIPO has spent too long besieged by forces that want to undermine authors’ rights. It is time for it to take positive initiatives to ensure that societies and citizens around the world benefit from strong authors’ rights – and it is time for authors and our organisations to make their voices clearly heard.”
More about the Forum can be found at http://www.internationalauthors.org/Home.aspx.