Responsibility is not just for one person.

The policy of socializing the publishing sector through the publishing partnership model has created a vibrant, diverse, and rich book market. However, without serious and responsible inspection and supervision of joint publications, the risk of releasing flawed and low-quality publications to the market is very high.

Recently, social media has been abuzz with the case of the book " World History" (published by Zenbooks and Dan Tri Publishing House), which was licensed from DK Publishing (UK) and translated by Le Thi Huong Ly. This book is considered an encyclopedia of history for all readers, especially children. The content presents the most important events in the history of each nation, people, and civilization. Through this, it helps readers understand the basic outlines of human history, the things that have shaped and are shaping the present and the future.

However, on page 373, titled "The Vietnam War," the book contains serious errors in terms of historical concepts. It can be understood that this reflects the perspective of a foreigner writing about the American war of aggression against Vietnam, and the translator has translated it mechanically, without adjusting it to reflect historical reality. As a jointly published work, the publishing units, most importantly the publisher, should have been responsible for checking and editing the book properly before it reached readers.

Because publishers are always considered the most important filter in the publishing process, contributing to raising the quality of a publication and deciding whether or not a publication will be released to the market, this requires publishing houses to always work with the highest sense of responsibility to ensure the quality of publications before they reach readers.

In an age of abundant and widespread information on social media, books are still considered a legitimate and reliable source of knowledge, especially for children. Many parents still believe that books are a treasure trove of knowledge and a great teacher for their children. This expectation is entirely understandable, as books typically undergo multiple levels of censorship before being released to the market.

Allowing young children to absorb inaccurate information is extremely dangerous and has unpredictable consequences. Therefore, to produce good, high-quality works, in addition to the responsibility of authors, translators, and collaborating units, the ultimate responsibility lies with the publishers. Only then can we hope to create a healthy publishing environment that provides readers with necessary, useful, and accurate knowledge.

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Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/trach-nhiem-khong-cua-rieng-ai-post798694.html