Satanic Verses author, and 200 others, use open letter to denounce Putin regime's new laws 'putting writers at risk'
'This is incredibly important to Russian writers, artists and citizens alike' … Salman Rushdie
On the eve of the Sochi winter Olympics, as the eyes of the world turn towards Russia, an assembly of more than 200 leading international authors - including Salman Rushdie, Günter Grass, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen - has formed to denounce the "choke hold" they say the country's anti-gay and blasphemy laws place on freedom of expression.
The open letter condemns the country's recently passed gay propaganda and blasphemy laws, which respectively prohibit the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors and criminalise religious insult, and its re-criminalisation of defamation. The three laws "specifically put writers at risk", say the authors, and they "cannot stand quietly by as we watch our fellow writers and journalists pressed into silence or risking prosecution and often drastic punishment for the mere act of communicating their thoughts".
Grass is joined as a signatory by three fellow Nobel laureates, Wole Soyinka, Elfriede Jelinek and Orhan Pamuk, and by internationally acclaimed writers from over 30 countries, including Ariel Dorfman, Carol Ann Duffy, Edward Albee, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Neil Gaiman. Russia's foremost contemporary novelist, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, is also a signatory to the letter.
Rushdie described the campaign as "essential", telling the Guardian that it is "incredibly important to Russian writers, artists and citizens alike".
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The open letter condemns the country's recently passed gay propaganda and blasphemy laws, which respectively prohibit the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors and criminalise religious insult, and its re-criminalisation of defamation. The three laws "specifically put writers at risk", say the authors, and they "cannot stand quietly by as we watch our fellow writers and journalists pressed into silence or risking prosecution and often drastic punishment for the mere act of communicating their thoughts".
Grass is joined as a signatory by three fellow Nobel laureates, Wole Soyinka, Elfriede Jelinek and Orhan Pamuk, and by internationally acclaimed writers from over 30 countries, including Ariel Dorfman, Carol Ann Duffy, Edward Albee, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Neil Gaiman. Russia's foremost contemporary novelist, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, is also a signatory to the letter.
Rushdie described the campaign as "essential", telling the Guardian that it is "incredibly important to Russian writers, artists and citizens alike".
More
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