BERLIN (AP) – Author Salman Rushdie called Sunday for the unconditional defence of freedom of expression as he received a prestigious German prize that recognizes his literary work and his resolve in the face of constant danger.
The British-American author decried the current age as a time when freedom of expression is under attack by all sides, including from authoritarian and populist voices, according to the German news agency dpa.
He made his remarks during a ceremony in St Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, where he was honoured with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for continuing to write despite enduring decades of threats and violence.
In August 2022, Rushdie was stabbed repeatedly while on stage at a literary festival in New York state.
Rushdie has a memoir coming out about the attack that left him blind in his right eye and with a damaged left hand. “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder” will be released on April 16. He called it a way “to answer violence with art.”
The German prize, which is endowed with EUR25,000, has been awarded since 1950. The German jury said earlier this year that it would honour Rushdie “for his resolve, his positive attitude to life and for the fact that he enriches the world with his pleasure in narrating.”
