Tag: censorship

BEFORE FACEBOOK WAS THE COFFEE HOUSE

December 1, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Today it’s Facebook. 350 years ago it was the coffee house. In the late seventeenth century, as Markman Ellis tells in his book on the cultural history of the coffee house, there was panic in British royal circles that these newly-established drinking salons had become forums for political dissent, rebellious attitudes and the spreading of untruths. In June 1672, Charles II issued a proclamation ‘to restrain the Spreading of False News, and Licentious Talking of Matters of State and Government.’ […]

Categories: Free Speech, History • Tags: censorship, facebook, fake news, free press, free speech

JYLLANDS-POSTEN AND THE AYATOLLAH WITHIN

November 17, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Flemming Rose is the former culture editor of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten who, in 2005, published the Muhammed cartoons and launched a global controversy. In a new book, De Besatte (The Possessed), Rose claims that far from defending freedom of expression, Jyllands-Posten attempted to gag him and to prevent him from saying or writing anything controversial. The Danish paper Information interviewed me about the case. This is a (rough) translation of the article. ‘Jyllands-Posten viste sin indre ayatollah’ Hans Henrik Rasmussen, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, danish cartoons, denmark, diversity, flemming rose, free speech, geert wilders, index on censorship, jytte klausen, rushdie affair, self-censorship, the satanic verses

TALKING SATANIC VERSES

October 13, 2016 by Kenan Malik

The copyediting of the Afterword for the new edition of From Fatwa to Jihad is complete. It’s inching towards publication… In the meantime I am reposting here two videos about the original edition that I made for Faculti, a website that publishes videos of authors and academics talking about their work. The first film is a reading from the final section of From Fatwa to Jihad, the second an exploration of the themes and arguments of the book.

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: censorship, free speech, islam, islamism, left, multiculturalism, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

CONNECTEDNESS AND DISCONNECTEDNESS

May 25, 2016 by Kenan Malik

In 2010, I spoke at a seminar in Oxford when Timothy Garton Ash launched his Free Speech project to explore the state of free speech in the contemporary world. Now, out of that project has come Garton Ash’s new book, called, unsurprisingly, Free Speech. So, it was a pleasure to be invited to discuss the issues again this week at a Guardian debate, at Conway Hall in London, to launch the book, together with Rowan Williams, Joanna Williams, Jonathan Freedand and, of course, […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, diversity, free speech, identity politics, timothy garton ash

WARNING: THIS MAY INJURE YOUR MODESTY

May 19, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Ahmed Naji is an Egyptian novelist and journalist who, in February, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for ‘injuring public modesty’. In August 2014, Akhbar al-Adab, a state-funded literary magazine, had published an excerpt from his third novel, Istikhdam al-Hayah (Using Life), which had been previously approved by Egypt’s censorship authority. In the excerpt, the narrator smokes hashish, drinks alcohol with his friends, and enjoys a sexual relationship with a woman. Hani Saleh Tawfik, a 65-year-old Egyptian, filed a case against Naji, […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: ahmed naji, censorship, egypt, fiction, free speech

THE STRANGE CASE OF THE VENUS AND THE COVER-UP

April 28, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Back in January, when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made an official visit to Rome, something strange happened to the statues he might have seen. Giovanni Tiso, a New Zealand-based writer and translator, tells here the story. Rouhani’s visit, and the Venus cover-up, might have taken place three months ago, but it is worth retelling the story, and putting it into context, because this is the kind of casual censorship that in many ways defines our time. As Giovanni writes, ‘this kind […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: art, censorship, italy, nudity

TALKING OF FREE SPEECH…

January 21, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Last year I gave a talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum on free speech and self-censorship. I also gave an interview to Google Ideas. It has now been published as part of a series of Google Ideas interviews from the Oslo Freedom Forum called Censored. Here is the original speech I gave, followed by the Google Ideas interview. . .

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, free speech, google ideas, islam, liberties, oslo freedom forum, racism, self-censorship

BIGOTRY, DEBATE, CENSORSHIP AND THE LEFT

January 17, 2016 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of my last column for the International New York Times on Maryam Namazie, Donald Trump and censorship, originally published on 21 December 2015. Donald J Trump and Maryam Namazie are divided by more than the width of the Atlantic. One is a reactionary, with bigoted ideas seemingly about everyone from Mexicans to Muslims. He is also currently a leading candidate to be the next president of the United States. The other is an Iranian feminist, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, donald trump, free speech, islamism, islamophobia, left, maryam namazie, populism, racism

CHARLIE HEBDO, ONE YEAR ON

January 7, 2016 by Kenan Malik

It is a year today since Islamist gunmen burst into the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including eight of the magazine’s staff. A few days after the attack I was interviewed by the BBC. ‘Don’t you think’, the interviewer asked, ‘ that the degree of solidarity expressed towards Charlie Hebdo represents a turning in attitudes to free speech?’ ‘I doubt it’, I replied. ‘There may be expressions of solidarity now. But fundamentally little will change. If anything, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, charlie hebdo, france, free speech, garry trudeau, hate speech, islam, islamism, laicite, left, racism, secularism

EXTREMISM AND THE LAW

October 21, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Back in 2008, I gave a talk at an Index on Censorship conference on ‘Extremism and the Law: Free Speech in an Age of Terror’ in which I suggested that: One of the most significant shifts in recent years has been the mutation of the notion of ‘extremism’ from being a description of a political claim to being a quasi legal term. From the BNP to Hizb ut-Tahrir to Buju Banton’s homophobic lyrics, to label speech as extremist is to label it […]

Categories: Free Speech, War on terror • Tags: censorship, counter-extremism, free speech, war on terror

FREE SPEECH IN AN AGE OF IDENTITY POLITICS

August 13, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my TB Davie Memorial lecture that I gave at the University of Cape Town on Thursday 13 August. It is truly an honour and pleasure to be able to deliver this lecture, and to be able to follow the speakers who have gone before me, speakers such as Walter Sisulu, Wole Soyinke, Edward Said and Noam Chomsky. It is an honour, too, to be the fiftieth speaker in this great series. But being the fiftieth speaker raises […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: academic freedom, black identity, censorship, free speech, identity politics, left, moral autonomy, offence, pluralism, racism, therapeutic society, trigger warnings, universalism, universities

IN THE WILDERNESS ABOUT CHARLIE HEBDO

August 8, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I took part on Friday in a debate on ‘The state of free expression after Charlie Hebdo‘ at the Wilderness Festival, with Anshuman Mondal and Tahmima Anam. It was a good debate, but frustratingly short. I agreed with virtually all the issues raised by Tahmima Anam (her main argument, from the perspective of a Bangladeshi-born writer, was that the state is amore dangerous threat to free speech than extremist groups.) But Anshuman Mondal (‘There is almost nothing that Kenan and I […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: anshuman mondal, censorship, charlie hebdo, free speech, freedom struggles, pluralism, racism, rights

THE IMPORTANCE OF FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE

June 30, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Tiffany Antone is a playwright, director, educator and producer. She is co-founder of The@trics and runs Little Black Dress INK, a female playwright producing organization. She writes here about the temptations and dangers of using trigger warnings, and how such warnings can limit both artistic freedom and an audience’s artistic appreciation. It was published first in Howlround. Tiffany Antone Trigger warnings and artistic freedom In 2014, Little Black Dress INK’s ONSTAGE festival lineup included a powerful little ‘rape comedy’ by playwright […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, offence, rape, satire, theatre, trigger warnings

I BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH, BUT…

June 3, 2015 by Kenan Malik

My talk at the Oslo Freedom Forum last week. For more videos of talks from the conference, many of which were moving and inspiring, visit the OFF website.

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, free speech, islam, liberalism, liberties, oslo freedom forum, racism, talks

AM I WRONG ABOUT HATE SPEECH BANS?

May 31, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Brian Carey, a political theorist based at the Universities of Limerick and Manchester, has responded to my previous post that made a case against the banning of hate speech. I am publishing his response here (he has published it also on his website) together with my reply below. My thanks to Brian for engaging in the debate, and I hope that this exchange is useful in helping to clarify ideas. . Brian Carey Why hate speech should be banned 1 Malik […]

Categories: Free Speech, Justice & Liberties, Race & Immigration • Tags: brian carey, british politics, censorship, free speech, hate speech, immigration, muslims, racism