Tag: free speech

WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO SPEAK?

May 31, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of a talk I gave at the Bristol Festival of Ideas, 21 May 2019, as part of the Coleridge Series. ‘Who has the right to speak?’ It is the key question in debates around free speech. Who should be allowed to speak? What should be permitted to be said? And who makes the decision? Historically, the issues were relatively clear. Censorship was imposed from the top. Its aim was to deflect, contain or deem illegitimate any […]

Categories: Free Speech, War on terror • Tags: anti-terror laws, blasphemy, censorship, corporate censorship, fake news, free speech, gill valentine, hate speech, incitement laws, iqbal sacranie, muslim, offence, prevent, racism, self-censorship, social media, tariq modood, universities

ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY AND FAR-RIGHT TERROR

March 25, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the relationship between anti-Muslim bigotry and far-right terror, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 24 March 2019, under the headline ‘Silencing Islamophobes is as futile a response as banning the Qur’an’. What drove Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch gunman, to commit his heinous acts? It’s a question that has, understandably, occupied much media space . A key debate has been over the role of anti-Muslim hatred and its entrenchment in mainstream society. In an open […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Politics • Tags: anti-muslim hatred, brenton tarrant, christchurch, douglas murray, far right, far-right terror, free speech, hate speech, immigration, islamism, jihadism, melanie phillips, muslims, terrorism, white nationalism

DISAGREEMENT IS NOT HATRED

November 26, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the transgender debate, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the war on terror). It was published in the Observer, 25 November 2018, under the headline ‘Debate ends when we label views we simply disagree with as ‘hatred’’. ‘It is better to debate a question without settling it,’ observed the 18th-century French writer Joseph Joubert, ‘than to settle a question without debating it.’ How naive that sounds today. In this age […]

Categories: Free Speech, Justice & Liberties, Women • Tags: bigotry, censorship, feminism, free speech, hate speech, joseph joubert, kathleen stock, maghan murphy, transgender, twitter, women's rights

BLASPHEMY, RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR

October 29, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on a European Court of Human Rights ruling and on changing forms of blasphemy law, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the contrast between the EU’s response to Italy on immigration and the budget). It was published in the Observer, 28 October 2018, under the headline ‘None of us should enjoy the right to have our beliefs shielded from abuse‘. Should it be illegal to call the prophet Muhammad […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech • Tags: blasphemy, censorship, european court of human rights, free speech, gay news, iqbal sacranie, islam, james kirkup, mary whitehouse, muhammad

A LITTLE MESSAGE FROM TWITTER…

October 26, 2018 by Kenan Malik

So, there I was writing an article on blasphemy and censorship (my Observer column, to be published tomorrow), when an email from Twitter Legal dropped into my inbox. It began: We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received official correspondence regarding your Twitter account, @kenanmalik. The correspondence claims that the following Tweet, is illegal: https://twitter.com/kenanmalik/status/1041253630018502656 The tweet to which it refers was a link to the Jesus and Mo cartoon shown at the top. The email continued: Twitter has […]

Categories: Free Speech, Pandaemonium • Tags: censorship, free speech, jesus and mo, twitter

AFTER THE SATANIC VERSES

October 1, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the legacy of the controversy surrounding The Satanic Verses, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on a call to halt the housing of asylum seekers in Sunderland). It was published in the Observer, 30 September 2018, under the headline ‘The Satanic Verses sowed the seeds of rifts that have grown ever wider’. Thirty years ago last week, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was published. Rushdie was then perhaps the most celebrated […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: british politics, censorship, clash of civilizations, free speech, identity politics, muslims, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, same sex marriage, the satanic verses

A CENSORSHIP LESS VISIBLE

September 22, 2018 by Kenan Malik

These were my opening remarks at a debate on censorship in the theatre, held at Shakespeare’s Globe, London, 20 September 2018. Other speakers included Shereener Browne, Agnieszka Kolek and Anders Lustgarten. One of the problems in discussing censorship is that we often don’t recognize censorship for what it is. There is no longer the Lord Chamberlain marking scripts and cutting out the unacceptable. Instead, we, in effect, ourselves mark them. And that, ironically, makes censorship not more, but less, visible. In all my […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: behzti, censorship, exhibit b, free speech, kehinde andrews, stella odunlame, theatre

FREE SPEECH, CULTURE AND IDENTITY: A GERMAN INTERVIEW

September 14, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This is a translation of part of an interview I gave to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on questions of free speech, multiculturalism and identity. The full interview is here. What restrictions should there be on freedom of expression? Should everyone always be allowed to say everything? It’s widely accepted today that in a plural society freedom of expression needs to be curtailed in the name of tolerance or respect. Otherwise minorities could suffer. I disagree. It’s precisely because we do […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Multiculturalism • Tags: afd, culture, free speech, germany, hate speech, identity politics, multiculturalism

WHY DEBATE BANNON?

September 10, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the controversy over Steve Bannon’s invitation to the New Yorker festival,, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the Swedish elections). It was published in the Observer, 9 September 2018, under the headline ‘Condemning all debate with Bannon amounts to giving up on politics’. Two memes have become central to much contemporary political debate. The first is that we need to break out of our echo chambers. The second is […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Politics • Tags: alt right, david remnick, donald trump, far right, free speech, new yorker, steve bannon

SILENCED BY THE WORKPLACE

August 6, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This was the main article in my Observer column this week. It was published on 22 July 2018, under the headline ‘Why are employers allowed to police what we say as private citizens?’ Angela Williamson needed an abortion. The trouble was, she lived in Tasmania. Abortion is legal in the state, but the last abortion clinic closed in December. So, this February, Williamson was forced to travel to Melbourne for her operation. Distressed and angry, she dashed off a few tweets to […]

Categories: Free Speech, International • Tags: abortion, angela williamson, free speech, privacy, public sphere, twitter

TREASON, OBLIGATION AND TRUST

July 30, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate about treason laws, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 22 July 2018, under the headline ‘If we want to build trust in society, a new treason law is no way to do it’. Does the crime of treason have any meaning today? A new report from the Policy Exchange thinktank, Aiding the Enemy, insists that it does. Britain’s current laws on treason are unfit for purpose and should be updated. An updated law, […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: british politics, dissent, free speech, freedom struggles, morality, policy exchange, treason, usa

BANNED IN PAKISTAN

July 20, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This post is about readers in Pakistan. Unfortunately readers in Pakistan won’t actually be able to read this. Which is what this post is about. Pandaemonium is a WordPress site. This week WordPress received an email from the ‘Web Analysis Team’ of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ‘The webpages hosted on your platform are extremely Blasphemous and are hurting the sentiments of many Muslims around Pakistan’, it read. What particularly seemed to concern the PTA were my articles about Charlie […]

Categories: Free Speech, International • Tags: blasphemy, censorship, charlie hebdo, free speech, liberal hypocrisy, pakistan, racism

OSMAN KAVALA AND THE IMPRISONMENT OF HOPE

May 21, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the imprisonment of Osman Kavala and what it signals about repression in Turkey, was the main part of my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Meghan Markle and why making inherited privilege more ‘diverse’ is not cause for celebration.) It was published in the Observer, 20 May 2018, under the headline ‘In Erdoğan’s warped world, even intellectuals are now “terrorists”‘. Imagine a seminar in London. Around the table are Blairites and Corbynistas, […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, War on terror • Tags: britain, erdogan, free speech, osman kavala, turkey, war on terror

‘TROUBLE IS AT THE HEART OF WHAT WE DO’

May 18, 2018 by Kenan Malik

Last week Pater Mayer died. He was a giant of the publishing industry. An American, he was in 1978 given the job of rescuing the venerable British publishers Penguin, which then had become almost defunct. He turned it into a global brand, and a major force in publishing. He transformed publishing in India by founding of Penguin India. Ten years later came the event that was to define both Mayer and Penguin. In September 1988 Penguin published Salman Rushdie’s The […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: ayatollah khomeini, fatwa, free speech, islamism, penguin books, peter mayer, publishing, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

THE MUDDLE OVER THE ‘GAY CAKE’

May 7, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the row in debate about Ashers, the Northern Irish bakers that refused to make a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan, was the main part of my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the changing attitudes of left and right towards the House of Lords.) It was published in the Observer, 6 May 2018, under the headline ‘The ‘gay cake’ fight: why the bakers had a right to refuse this order’. […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: ashers, censorship, discrimination, equality, free speech, gay cake, gay marriage, gay rights, northern ireland, peter tatchell, religious freedom