There is no existing vocabulary to illustrate a condition that requires a special kind of reality. Once it comes to a point when the authority cannot rationally communicate or have a clear exchange of ideas or when they cannot allow the argument, then the only thing they can do is to make you feel that… Read More Ai Weiwei: ‘I became the enemy of the established power, but without a crime’
By Arzu Geybullayeva Police in Turkey have arrested pop singer Gülşen (full name Gülşen Colakoglu), 46, pending trial, over a comment she made about religious schools, months ago during one of her concert. Last April, Gülşen, joked about one of her colleagues’ Imam Hatip past during a concert in Istanbul. Imam Hatip high schools are Islamic religious education institutions originally… Read More In Turkey, Pop Singer arrested for Offending Clerics
By Nasim Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The firing of Palestinian American woman, Natalie Abulhawa, has sparked a debate over free-speech, “cancel-culture” and the ever-growing crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. The 25-year-old athletic trainer was fired by a private girls school in Bryn Mawr over years-old social media posts criticising Israel. In March the… Read More The Real Cancel Culture: Anti-Palestinianism and the Crisis of American Free Speech
By Andy Lee Roth / Project Censored Violence is the most basic and blunt form of press censorship. To kill or imprison a journalist is to silence the public’s source of news. To date, 33 journalists around the world have been killed this year and another 494 are currently imprisoned, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Put another… Read More The Deadly Business of Reporting Truth
On Salman Rushdie by Justin E. H. Smith “Never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things – childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves – that go on slipping, like sand, through our fingers.” — Salman Rushdie The goring of Salman Rushdie… Read More The Fragile Bodies of Famous Men
How journalism in Kashmir has been driven to the edge TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAHID TANTRAY AT 1.45 PM, on 15 January, an armoured cavalcade rolled onto the premises of the Kashmir Press Club—Kashmir’s largest body representing journalists—in Polo View, abutting Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. There had been heightened police presence at the club since the day… Read More Dead Lines
NB: The Iranian government has distanced itself from the attack, but a Iranian government-supported newspaper has hailed the attacker as a hero. Religious ‘hurt sentiment’ has become a precursor to contract killing. Religious leaders who call for murder are themselves satanic; does the Divine Creator requires his or her dignity to be defended by mere… Read More The Disappeared: How the fatwa changed a writer’s life
Narendra Dabholkar (1945-2013) ‘Remember Gandhi. Remember what we did to him’: last threat to Narendra Dabholkar PUNE: Well-known rationalist and anti-superstition crusader Narendra Dabholkar was on Tuesday shot dead by two unidentified assailants while on a morning walk near Omkareshwar temple here. The 67-year-old activist was shot from close range and died on the spot. Police said the… Read More Four Indian intellectuals who were murdered for their ideas (2013-2017)
Mukul Kesavan on Salman Rushdie and the violence on free thought NB: In case we forget what’s happened in India between 2013 and 2017: Four Indian intellectuals who were murdered for their ideas (2013-2017) In the decades since Khomeini’s fatwa overset Salman Rushdie’s life, his critics have sometimes suggested that he isn’t really a free speech icon because… Read More Bloodied pen
Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, an Austrian GP, was a doctor who dedicated her life to her patients and was vocal about the risks of Covid-19 on Twitter and in the media. She had endured months of death threats from Covid conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. Colleagues expressed frustration with the lack of support she received for dealing with… Read More Devi Sridhar: A scientist in the public eye has taken her own life. This has to be a wake-up call
After the truth-shower 