Date: Sun, 11 Feb 1996 09:20:37 -0500
REPLY: Cambridge UP responds on Karakasidou case.
The following response from Cambridge University Press about his affair was run on 10 February 1996 on the H-Net Habsburg list.
From: Charles Ingrao Our thanks to H-SAE for alerting us to this troubling story, which could
impact scholarly publishing in Balkan history, and to Richard Fisher
of Cambridge University Press, who has sent me an official statement that
I have also enclosed below:
The decision by Cambridge University Press not to offer Dr Karakasidou a
contract for her manuscript was a very complicated and painful one. In
particular, we deeply regret the difficult position in which this has
placed the author, who has written a serious and valuable study. Following
the decision, Michael Herzfeld and Stephen Gudeman resigned from the
editorial board of our anthropology monograph series, on which both had
been active and much valued members. The Press acted correctly, though in a
situation where a good case could be made on both sides of the argument.
In the end, everyone has had to choose between powerful but irreconcilable
moral imperatives. No compromise was possible, though we all did our best
to find one.
We were aware that Dr Karakasidou had received death threats in May 1993
from a right-wing Greek organisation in the United States, and that an
anonymous letter, postmarked Athens, threatened her with rape, while the
Greek newspaper Stohos published her address in Salonika and her car
registration number. Her plight had been taken up by International Pen and
various human rights organisations. We included this background information
in our report to the Press Syndicate (the Committee that governs Cambridge
University Press), in early November 1995. We naturally relied heavily on
the assessment of Professor Herzfeld. It is worth noting that in 1994-95,
when Dr Karakasidou took up a fellowship at Harvard, concerns for her
safety had led Professor Herzfeld to request special protection for her and
for himself from the Cambridge police (for he had spoken publicly in her
defence).
The senior officers of the Press were in no doubt that the manuscript was
of high quality. Understandably the Press officers judged it necessary to
make further enquiries on the security question, for Greek nationalist
feelings were running high on the Macedonian question. They took advice
from the Greek office of Cambridge University Press, from Greek academics
and from British officials in Greece, who warned that publication might put
at risk the lives of Press staff in Athens, and of Cambridge University
personnel in Greece. The Foreign Office was also consulted. Each drew
attention to recent cases of terrorist violence against other foreign
cultural institutions in Greece which were associated with what were
perceived to be 'anti-Greek' organisations.
At a meeting on December 1, 1995, the Press Syndicate (the governing body
of the Press, comprised entirely of senior academic staff of the
University) had to decide, first, how significant the risks might be, and,
second, if there was a risk to their personnel, whether publication should
proceed. The Syndicate came to the unanimous conclusion that publication
might well put local employees at risk, and a decision was taken not to
publish. Professor Herzfeld and Professor Gudeman have suggested that other
advice should have been sought, but even if this had been more equivocal
about the risk, Cambridge University Press, as a reasonable employer, would
have found it very difficult to ignore advice from those in the front line.
One could not know for certain what the risks were without publishing the
book, but there was understandably enough evidence to give a prudent
management cause for serious concern. The series editors argued their case
forcefully, even passionately, and their arguments were naturally given
very careful consideration by their fellow-scholars on the Press Syndicate.
The Press has as its statutory imperative the dissemination of knowledge,
and no decision that might in any way compromise the integrity of that
imperative would ever be countenanced lightly.
It should be emphasised as a fundamental point of principle that there was
no contract to publish, nor ever an implicit one. Every academic press from
time to time refuses to publish a book recommended by an editor or series
adviser. This was a very difficult decision, taken in good faith by the
Press Syndicate following extensive consultation with academic advisers,
senior editorial officers and Press representatives around the world. It is
very unlikely that a similar concatenation of circumstances would arise
ever again.
Cambridge University Press
Subject: Cambridge rejects Macedonia book due to threats
Official Statement issued by Cambridge University Press:
2.2.96