Salman Rushdie Says America Is ‘Having a Very Difficult Moment’ With Free Speech as He Accepts Liberatum Award: ‘The Burden of Proof Must Always Lie on the Censor’

The novelist Salman Rushdie says the United States is, in his words, having a very difficult moment when it comes to free speech. According to Variety, Rushdie made the remark while accepting the Liberatum Cultural Honor at Camden Town Hall in London, the same building where he once worked in community relations before his rise to literary fame. He warned that free expression in America is under sustained pressure from the Trump administration, and argued that the burden of proof must always lie on the censor rather than on the speaker.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton