![]() ![]() In November, the killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in Holland appeared to highlight the pressures on free speech in a multicultural society. Only last week, the comedian Rowan Atkinson led a call defending "the right to offend", against government plans to outlaw incitement to religious hatred.Ītkinson argues the law would force "creative thinkers" to bite their tongue, and so produce a "veneer of tolerance concealing a snakepit of unaired and unchallenged views". The decision by Birmingham's Rep theatre to call off a play after protests by the city's Sikh community turned violent at the weekend, has reignited the debate on what, if any limits, should govern freedom of speech. It's 15 years since Rushdie's novel, the Satanic Verses, earned the Booker Prize-winning novelist death threats, but the question persists. "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist," wrote Salman Rushdie.
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