Hari Kunzru: ‘The right to freedom of speech trumps any right to protection from offense’
November 26th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted by Joel Gunter in Editors' pick, Events, Politics, Press freedom and ethics
Author and English PEN deputy president Hari Kunzru has posted a tanscript of his address to the European Writers Parliament yesterday, in which he criticised the event’s host country Turkey over article 301 of its penal code which makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity and Turkish government institutions.
I believe that the right to freedom of speech trumps any right to protection from offense, and that it underlies all the other issues I’ve been speaking about. Without freedom of speech, we, as writers, can have very little impact on culture.
Tags: article 301, european writers parliament, Hari Kunzru, press freedom, Turkey, vs naipaul
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