Freedom of speech
The Pineapple of Hate
We have had the dreaded cartoons, films, teddy-bear and more. But I bet that until now nobody imagined we would…
China bans Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’: George Orwell would have seen the irony
Books – or lack thereof – are the latest manifestation of anti-Japanese sentiment in China. The escalating dispute over the…
Freedom betrayed
I have a piece in the magazine this week on the disgraceful behaviour of Hillary Clinton and other US officials…
No surrender for Salman
As the Middle East reels and Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo up their security, one man who knows more than…
Joseph Anton, a brilliant and important book
I’m halfway through Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie’s memoir of what it was like to be given a death sentence by…
Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’ revisited
The publication of Joseph Anton (tomorrow), Salman Rushdie’s much anticipated memoir, has given newspapers cause to revisit The Satanic Verses. The…
Salman Rushdie: He’s still here
Until the launch party for Salman Rushdie’s autobiography, the best story I’d heard about the forced marriage of literary London…
Freedom undermined by termites
I have been reading a new book by Theodore Dalrymple which I highly recommend. Readers of the Spectator will need…
Channel 4 cancels Tom Holland’s history of Islam, but the extremists will not win
In what may prove to be the most depressingly predictable story of the year, we learn that Channel 4 has…
The history of Islam is not off-limits
I’ve only just got around to watching Tom Holland’s documentary for Channel 4 from earlier this week: ‘Islam: the untold…
Karl Rove’s a believer
I’m indebted to John Rentoul for drawing my attention to this report of a talk given by Karl Rove to…
RIP Robert Hughes: Enemy of the Woozy
Few books have had a greater effect on me than Robert Hughes’ Culture of Complaint. The clarity of Hughes’ style…
Peter Hitchens vs Mehdi Hasan
A fascinating column in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday by Peter Hitchens asks ‘Am I an “animal”, a “cow” — or…
The censorship Olympics
The Olympics may just 16 days away but will the spectators be able to find chips? The shocking picture above shows…
A self-regarding attack on free speech
Imbecilic leftie authoritarians are whining again about being called nasty names by people with less power than them. Exhibit A…
Will journalists soon have to pay for the privilege?
I had the strangest call today from an outfit called publicservice.co.uk. A rather pleasant woman, albeit with a slightly insistent…
What’s Happened to Free Speech in Britain?
It’s not just Scotland, however. Speech-restricting madness exists across the United Kingdom. Here’s an extraordinary tale from West Yorkshire where…
The worst form of censorship
A week ago, the offices of the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo were burned down. This attack came after it…
An assault on humour
On Tuesday night the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was firebombed, presumably by Islamic terrorists, for naming the Prophet Mohammed…
The danger to a free press
“In Britain, a free press is non-negotiable,” Ivan Lewis has just said – before suggesting ways that Government might, ahem,…
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