The International Symposium “Publishing and Security: The Role of the Publishing Industry in Promoting Societal Awareness and Intellectual Security” was launched on Monday, 27 April 2026, at the headquarters of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) in Rabat. The Symposium is organized by ICESCO in partnership with Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS), with the participation of government officials and a distinguished group of experts and specialists. It aims to explore ways to develop responsible publishing policies that protect societies from extremist discourse, hate speech, misinformation, and fake news.

In his opening remarks at the two-day symposium, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of ICESCO, affirmed that the Organization continues its efforts to support scientific and cultural publishing, promote a culture of verification, and expand access to reliable knowledge through scientific partnerships that contribute to the development of policies related to publishing and security.

As part of celebrating Rabat as a World Book Capital, Dr. AlMalik called for the establishment of a joint action framework between ICESCO, the Moroccan Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, and NAUSS to launch an ethical charter for responsible publishing, a knowledge awareness program targeting youth, and a digital platform for scientific publishing, thus opening broader horizons for strengthening the quality and ethics of publishing.

For his part, Dr. Khalid bin Abdulaziz Alharfash, Secretary of the NAUSS Supreme Council and Vice President for External Relations, stated that the rationale for the organization of the symposium stems from a deep awareness of the pivotal role played by the publishing industry in building a cross-border knowledge society. He added that publishing serves as a bridge for the exchange of ideas and the transfer of knowledge across cultures, and as a lever for enhancing societal awareness and consolidating the values of moderation and balance.

In an intervention during the opening session, Dr. Ahmed AlBanyan, Head of the Translation and Publishing Center at ICESCO, considered that intellectual security is no longer solely an educational or cultural issue, as it has become a multidimensional intersection of policy, technology, legislation, and institutions. Meanwhile, Mr. Hicham Mallati, Director of Criminal Affairs, Pardons, and Crime Monitoring at the Moroccan Ministry of Justice, emphasized that justice is not an enemy to publishing, but rather a guardian of the boundary delineating the lawful use of expression from the unlawful.

Dr. Ghizlane Drous, Director of Books, Libraries, and Archives at the Moroccan Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, subsequently explained that intellectual security is fundamentally linked to the “shaping of awareness,” noting that the book constitutes the first line of defense against extremist and misleading ideas, specifically among youth.

The opening session also featured an exchange of commemorative shields between the organizing parties. The Symposium continues through six panel sessions and a workshop entitled “Publishing and Intellectual Security,” moderated by Dr. Khaled Azab, an expert in Islamic heritage and urbanism from the Arab Republic of Egypt.