13 Feb 09 | Comment, Middle East and North Africa
On 14 February 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran declared a death sentence on novelist Salman Rushdie after the publication of The Satanic Verses. Twenty years on Lisa Appignanesi, recalls how a ground-breaking, visionary novel was hijacked and transformed into an international political cause
Plus: Bernard-Henri Lévy says the fatwa marked a retreat from tolerance
Kenan Malik on why Rushdie’s critics won the war
Peter Mayer on how Penguin faced down the threats
Malise Ruthven describes a political storm
Salil Tripathi says religious offence stifles debate
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11 Jun 08 | Asia and Pacific, News and features
Online criticism of politicians is not tolerated in Singapore, writes David Jardine
Singapore, long known for what is sometimes described as ‘soft authoritarianism’ is a dangerous place in which to post dissident blogs. The latest person to discover this is Gopalan Nair, a US citizen of Singaporean origin.
Nair, in his Singaporean days a lawyer and activist for the opposition Workers’ Party, is the latest to fall foul of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s penchant for suing his critics in an effort to both bankrupt them and silence them. Now an immigration lawyer in California, Nair claims on his blog Singapore Dissident that he was ‘harassed and persecuted by Lee’ and this was his reason for taking up citizenship in the USA.
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07 Dec 07 | News and features
The delicate balance of Malaysia’s inter-ethnic politics has come under threat from an unexpected source and the response from the national government poses serious questions about freedom of expression. David Jardine reports
The previously unknown Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) called a national rally in Kuala Lumpur in November to air its grievances about the alleged marginalisation of the Indian ethnic minority and to demand compensation from Britain for its exploitation during the colonial period. The government banned the rally and arrested three HINDRAF leaders, all lawyers, on charges of sedition for “inciting hatred”.
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05 Nov 07 | Comment
Recently returned from Rangoon, Fergal Keane reflects on how new and old media worked together, allowing brave dissidents to break the Burmese junta’s censorship
This is the story of how new and old media combined to beat the censors in Burma, a narrative of how cyberspace, along with one of the BBC’s most venerable outlets and some old fashioned undercover work challenged a repressive regime’s attempts to destroy independent journalism. Since then there has been a crackdown and the “bamboo curtain” has been lowered once again. But not for long I believe.
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