Salman Rushdie warns free expression in the West under threat in rare speech after attack
- The author delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he was honoured with the Freedom to Publish award
- Rushdie said ‘freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West’
Rushdie delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he was awarded the Freedom to Publish award on Monday evening. Organisers said the honour “acknowledges the determination of authors, publishers and booksellers who take a stand against intolerance, despite the ongoing threats they face.”
He said that “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.”
“Now I am sitting here in the US, I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries, and books for children in schools,” he said.
“The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be very aware of it, and to fight against it very hard.”
Rushdie, 75, was blinded in one eye and suffered nerve damage to his hand when he was attacked at a literary festival in New York state in August. His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder.