Phoenix, AZ – The International Impact Book Awards (IIBA) celebration of indie voices is now caught in a blatant censorship scandal. Despite winning recognition in the 2025 cycle, the book Biden’s Corruption and War: The True Story of the 1 Billion Dollar Prosecutor by Viktor Shokin and published by Beni Productions, was quietly blacklisted from a book spotlight interview for Global Thought Leaders (GLT) TV, a CBS Phoenix show. The book was published for the first time for an American audience. Beni Productions claims other media groups are providing the same feedback, when it comes to book coverage.
Organizers Nim Stant’s IIBA and GLT admitted the snub in an email sent to Beni Productions from Kate, a representative of the IIBA orgnization, “We can’t risk our ties with local news stations.” CBS Phoenix (KPHO-TV, branded as Arizona’s Family), the station slated to film this exclusive pulled the slot 20-minutes prior to the interview schedule after pressure to censor it. “We’ve been advised that the network the interview is intended to air on does not allow content that may be considered politically polarizing,” was the reason provided in an email from the IIBA organization to the publishers.
Roughly 1-year ago Catherine Herridge explosively uncovered a network’s decision to withhold news of the Hunter Biden laptop. Shokin’s books gives the Ukrainian skinny of the Hunter Biden-Burisma scandal and more, with personal accounts not generally discussed.
In recent years, Hunter Biden was mired in a series of defamation lawsuits about information from his laptop and claims of an alleged deal with Iran. The cases entangled many household names, Guiliani, FOX News, Patrick Byrne, former Trump White House aid, Garrett Ziegler, and Delaware laptop repairman Mac Isaac. While most cases were dropped, dismissed or settled, a subtle message of financial repercussions looms with narratives related to Hunter Biden. Beni Productions President, Florita Toquero stated, “Understandably, the threat is enough to cause pause to networks and organizations advocating for free speech, like the IIBA and GLT. It presents censorship as a safe choice that continues a spotless narrative—even for autobiographical accounts such as Shokin’s book.”
Florita protests the claims of one-sidedness, “The genre of a memior and auto-biography presumes a narrow perspective. That’s a fact taught in gradeschool. Shokin’s claims are supported with 40-pages of references. I’m not backing down. We earned this. They promised the spotlight, then yanked it because of inconvenient truths. If indie awards fold under political heat, what’s left for free and independent speech? This is a clear sign of media strong arming the control of accepted ideas among international leaders.”
The IIBA’s Global Thought Leader(s) got schooled by big media, which clearly defined the cramped boundaries of international impact and allowed ideas. Florita states, “This is one way that hive-minds are built within our institutions of thought, which should promote ideological exchanges rather than snuff them out.”