The Philip Pullman affair shows social media is where good arguments go to die
The author of His Dark Materials has spoken out against “gesture politics” – but he too adds fuel to the…
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Support free speech and you must support the right to criticise the monarchy
If the Queen was custodian of a free society, we should defend the right to protest against the institution she…
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France and the fatwa
The attack on Salman Rushdie has exposed the deepening fault lines in French culture.
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Storytelling must prevail in a world in which democracy is under threat
The attack on Salman Rushdie was not an isolated incident, but connected to the political and cultural changes we are…
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How the fatwa against Salman Rushdie changed British identity
In 1989 a new global conflict began that still defines our time: a war of power, wealth and dogma.
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Leader: In defence of the open society
A healthy liberal democracy must guarantee freedom of expression; it must not guarantee freedom from offence.
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Salman Rushdie shows us that free speech is life itself
Rushdie knows how vital, how serious the business of storytelling is. Yet in my encounters with him he never took…
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The attack on Salman Rushdie is an attack on a global community of writers and readers
The freedom of expression and imagination that the novelist has bravely championed for so long is under renewed assault.
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