NEW YORK, June 16 – Simon & Schuster and its employees are committed to publishing in a manner that respects the environment and helps to preserve the world’s great forest regions for the use and pleasure of future generations. An essential requirement for responsible forestry and paper sourcing in today’s world is the cooperative effort of manufacturers, environmental advocates, government agencies and local stakeholders.

The current dispute and litigation between Resolute Forest Products and Greenpeace, which follows upon years of contested facts and policies, represents an unfortunate breakdown in this necessary cooperation. Each party in this dispute has made claims, counterclaims and arguments in support of its positions about complicated issues that, as publishers, we have little ability to judge or verify. We do, however, recognize the urgency of current environmental issues, the unalloyed right to free and responsible speech in advocating for environmental and other causes, and the right to defend one’s reputation.

We therefore urge Resolute and Greenpeace to find a new way forward to resolve this dispute, one in which meaningful discussion and  the common goal of responsible forest stewardship leads to productive agreement on how that can be accomplished for the benefit of all involved.