Salman Rushdie has warned other countries that the West is under threat when it comes to freedom of expression and freedom to publish.
“We live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression, freedom to publish, has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West,” said Rushdie in a video call when he received the Freedom to Publish award by The British Book Awards earlier this week.
“The freedom to publish, of course is also the freedom to read and the freedom to write, the ability to write what you want… to be able to choose what you want to read and not have it decided for you externally.”
The West
Last year’s attack in August has left Rushdie blind in one eye and affected the use of his hands. The author has been on the receiving end of death threats ever since his novel Satanic Verses came out in 1988 over text that has been deemed to have profanity.
Rushdie also spoke about how certain books have been banned in the United States.
“Now I am sitting here in the United States, I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries and books for children in schools. The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be aware of it, and fight against it very hard.”
In the last two years, more than 1,000 titles have been banned from US classrooms and school libraries, most of them to do with racism and LGBTQ issues.
In a CBS news report he said publishers should allow books “to come to us from their time and be of their time. And if that’s difficult to take, don’t read it, read another book,” he said.
Read More News
Jade Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger arrested for assaulting police
The photo above is from Wikipedia