His attacker expressed admiration for the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who more than 30 years ago had called for Rushdie's death.Īnd while the Iranian government denied any involvement in last week's attack, the vitriol against Rushdie in Iran has not abated. And yet the danger of the voice speaking freely.ĬHAKRABARTI: One week ago, Salman Rushdie was brutally attacked while on stage in western New York State. SALMAN RUSHDIE : I think that's one reason why authoritarian regimes have so often gone after poets and novelists, people who have no armies, the people who often don't even command gigantic crowds. He said in a world of increasing authoritarianism, quote, 'writing at its best has freedom. MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI: What is so threatening about free expression? The writer Salman Rushdie, speaking last year at the New York Public Library, offered this answer. ( Transcript: Highlights From The Show's Open Host of the podcast Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech. Author of Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media. Executive director of the Copenhagen-based think tank Justitia. Jacob Mchangama, lawyer and human rights advocate. Today, On Point: The history of the price of free speech. 'Even open democracies are adopting standards to counter undesirable material on social media or hate speech or disinformation.' Free speech has been in retreat around the globe,' Jacob Mchangama, lawyer and human rights advocate, said. 'We're living through a free speech recession. And our guest says, so is the concept of free speech. Last week, Rushdie was brutally attacked.

'Not all their drawings are funny, but the fact that you dislike them has got nothing to do with their right to speak.' The point about it is that it's free! You can dislike Charlie Hebdo,' Rushdie said. 'The moment you limit free speech it’s not free speech. In 2015, when gunmen killed 12 at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, he spoke out. Rushdie remained a fierce defender of free speech. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)Īuthor Salman Rushdie spent years hiding because Iran's religious leaders wanted him dead for a book they didn't like. After publishing his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, Rushdie was condemned to death by former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in early 1989, and he was forced into hiding.

Mchangama free speech