Salman Rushdie: “The world has abandoned realism”
The novelist on the threat to free speech, facing his attacker, and why writing Knife gave him back “the power”.
ByFree speech
The biggest threat to freedom in the West is liberalism itself
Progressives everywhere are deploying the law to attack free speech. It is a bid for unchecked power that is galvanising…
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Salman Rushdie’s warning bell
His memoir Knife is a defence of free speech for a new age of intolerance. We should listen.
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Why I was banned from Germany
In the name of protecting Israel’s security, the German government has sunk to farcical new authoritarian lows.
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JK Rowling is right to scorn Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act
The SNP sees itself as a vanguard of progressive values. But this priggish law is at odds with the notion…
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Gove’s new definition of extremism is already a problem for Sunak
The new policy was designed to tackle the rise in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim abuse – but it has been called…
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Sunak’s latest rebrand will fail for the same reason all the others have
The Prime Minister wants to turn himself into a defender of British values against extremism – but there is already…
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Academics can no longer speak freely
Solving this crisis in higher education should transcend the division between the right and the left.
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The Policy Ask with Daniel Gorman: “We are in a human rights emergency”
The director of English PEN on the erosion of civil liberties, protecting free speech and calling for a ceasefire.
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Will the Online Safety Act protect us or infringe our freedoms?
After six years of development, child safety and free speech campaigners react to the long-awaited internet laws.
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Losing Twitter’s block function would be a disaster
Elon Musk’s number-one goal is to make “X” the home of “free speech”, a concept he wrongly equates to harmful…
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The Farage-Coutts scandal exposes the left’s hypocrisy
Liberals should be defending free speech, not an elite bank.
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How to solve a problem like free speech? Even the tsar will struggle
University students need to be exposed to different views - but even the government doesn't seem to know where to…
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Extinction Rebellion makes a splash on ‘Fleet Street’
Not before plastering the wrong building in green paint.
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What Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gets wrong about free speech
The author says she prefers to read non-fiction because she senses so many novelists holding back due to “social censure”.…
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The Philip Pullman affair shows social media is where good arguments go to die
The author of His Dark Materials has spoken out against “gesture politics” – but he too adds fuel to the…
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Support free speech and you must support the right to criticise the monarchy
If the Queen was custodian of a free society, we should defend the right to protest against the institution she…
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France and the fatwa
The attack on Salman Rushdie has exposed the deepening fault lines in French culture.
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Storytelling must prevail in a world in which democracy is under threat
The attack on Salman Rushdie was not an isolated incident, but connected to the political and cultural changes we are…
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How the fatwa against Salman Rushdie changed British identity
In 1989 a new global conflict began that still defines our time: a war of power, wealth and dogma.
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