You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (40 page)

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Authors: Nick Cohen

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BOOK: You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom
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Sangh Parivar (Hindu nationalist movement) 62

Sannikov, Andrei 282–4

Sarkozy, Nicolas 116

Satanic Verses, The
(Rushdie) 3–20, 22–43, 51, 95; ‘blasphemous’ nature of 3–4; approach to Muhammad 6–11; Islam’s attitude towards women and 7–8; terror and protest in reaction to 13–20, 38, 41; banned 13–15, 58–9, 62; fatwa and 12, 15–20, 24–5, 30, 35, 42–53, 136; fear of West at reaction to 18–20, 45; Western liberals and 29–53, 95; publishers 33–5, 41, 44, 48; Western critics of 34–41; Western governments’ reaction to 38–9

Saudi Arabia xvii, 8, 40, 90, 93, 121, 127, 146, 202–5

scientific method 153–4, 173

Sedition Act, US 220

self-censorship 4, 13, 21, 52–3, 89, 136, 154, 162, 172, 198, 274, 299

Sense about Science (organisation) 245

Serbia 32

Serpentine Gallery (London) 55

Shame
(Rushdie) 6

Shamir, Israel 296, 297

Sharia law 8, 14, 41, 50, 59, 81, 114–15, 120, 128–9

Shia Islam 41, 56, 77–8, 127

Shirky, Clay 267–9

Shiv Sena 58, 59, 60

Simpson, Wallis 255

Sinclair, Upton 164

Singh, Simon 236–47, 250, 276

Skype 265

SLAPP actions (‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’) 221–2

Sloan, Allan 164

Socrates 170–1

Sohu.com 287

Somalia 94, 99, 101, 104, 108

Sontag, Susan 38

South Africa 4, 15, 19, 40, 45

South Park
96, 176, 202

Southey, Robert 103

Soviet Union 4, 19, 97, 143, 146, 148, 253, 273

Spellberg, Denise 76–8

Spinoza, Baruch 106, 108

Stalin, Joseph 16, 84, 128, 253

Statute of Westminster (1275) 188–9

Stevens, Justice John 250

Stone, Matt 96

Straw, Jack 95

Submission
(film) 106–7

sub-prime debt 160, 164

Sudan 15, 205, 260

Sufi Muslims 88

Sullivan, L.B. 217–20

Summers, Larry 160

Sunday Times
80–1, 165–6, 192

Sunni Muslims 66–7, 88

super-injunctions xii–xvi, xxi, 195–6

Supreme Court, US 210, 219–221, 248–50, 258

Sutherland, John 74

Syria xvi, 18, 79, 92–3, 95, 267, 275, 283, 285

Szymborska, Wislawa 54, 78

 

 

Tabari 66

Taliban 63, 87, 296–7

Talmud schools 107

Taseer, Salmaan 128, 301

Tate, Sharon 177, 178, 181–2, 207

Taylor, Harriet 224–6

Tea Party 118

Tebbit, Norman 38

telecommunications industry, US deregulation of 258–9

television: celebrities on 187; fear of lawsuits 202; impartiality and increase in choice of channels 248–9; politics and 277; escapism and 278

terrorism 16, 47, 50, 73, 80–1, 88–90, 102, 108, 117–19, 126–7, 129, 185, 192, 202, 205, 256–7, 288, 291

Tesco Bank 158

Tett, Gillian 164

Thackeray, Bal 59, 60

Thatcher, Margaret 37–8, 47, 166, 212–13

Thathaal, Deepika 122–3

Time
(magazine) 97

Times, The
50, 163–4, 186–7

Torah 24, 70, 175

Trafigura 194–6

Travolta, John 202

Trevor-Roper, Hugh (Lord Dacre) 35–6

Trick or Treatment
(Singh/Ernst) 237–8

Tripathi, Salil 63

Trithemius, Johannes 270–2

Troitsky, Art 274

Twitter xiv–xvi, xxi, 187, 190, 244, 253–4, 261, 266, 288–91

 

 

Ukraine 203, 275

United Nations xii, 201: attacks British libel law 247; Declaration of Human Rights 128–9; Human Rights Council 127; bugging of by British intelligence 256

United States: Congress protests against English libel law xii, 201, 268; religion in 8;
Satanic Verses
and 17; privacy in 36; anti-Americanism 51, 117; free speech in 96, 221–2, 302
see also
United States Constitution; blasphemy law, lack of 96; wealth gap in 142–4; financial crisis (2008) and 160; segregation in 210–23; intimidation of public servants 255–66

United States Constitution: blasphemy and 96; First Amendment 194, 216, 220–1, 230, 248, 259, 264, 286, 301; segregation and 210, 214, 216; ‘fairness doctrine’ 248; Internet and 258; Pentagon Papers and 264

University of California, Berkeley 161

University College London 74–6

US Congress xii, 216, 220, 259, 301

US Defense Department 264

US Federal Reserve 160

US State Department xvi, 38, 255, 263, 297–8

USAID 205

 

 

van Gogh, Theo 42, 89, 106–9, 111, 120

Vanity Fair
(magazine) 181–3, 206–7

Venediktov, Aleksei 274

Verdonk, Rita 109–10

Victoria, Queen 225

Vienna University 233

Vietnam War 177, 264, 278

Vindication of the Rights of Woman, A
(Wollstonecraft) 102–3

Virginia Statute for Religious Tolerance 27–8

Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet 23, 112

 

 

Wajda, Andrzej 83

Wall Street 145–6, 160, 162–5

Wall Street Journal
xvii, 76–7

‘war atmosphere’ 254–7

war on drugs 225–6

War on Terror 256

Warsaw Pact 147

Waskow, Arthur 69–70

wealthy: use of libel law xi–xvi, xxi, 22–3, 147, 176–83, 188–209, 216–21, 230–50, 300, 302; financial crisis (2008) and xviii–xix, 142–3, 145–7, 154, 159–69, 286, 300–1; oligarchs
see
oligarchs
and
oligarchies; wealth gap and 141–7, 161–2, 174–5; political influence 143, 145–7, 199; attitudes of 148; media, control of 147, 149, 183–209, 261–2; Civil Rights/segregation and 210–21

Wechsler, Herbert 219, 220–1

Weekly Mail
(South Africa) 15

Westergaard, Kurt 94

Whigs 193

whistleblowers 149–69, 175, 222, 301

WikiLeaks xvi, 255–6, 265, 295–8, 302

Wilberforce, William 245

Wilders, Geert 118

Williams, Raymond 47

Wilmhurst, Peter 239

Wired
(magazine) 266

Wollstonecraft, Mary 102–3, 112, 135, 138

women: emancipation/subjugation of xxii, 7–11, 26, 29, 36, 39–41, 43, 45, 51–2, 63–7, 70, 80–1, 87–8, 90–1, 96, 98–124, 127–30, 133, 135, 138, 184–5, 225, 227, 298, 300; feminism xviii, 5, 10, 38, 42, 51–3, 64, 70, 81, 102, 104, 108–10, 122–3, 135, 151; religion and xxii, 7–11, 26, 29, 36, 39–41, 43, 45, 51–2, 63–7, 70, 80–1, 87–8, 90–1, 96, 98–124, 127–30, 133, 135, 138, 298, 300

Women Against Fundamentalism 40, 51

Wordsworth, William 134–5

workplace: libel law and xii–xiii, xx, 3–4, 149–69, 191–201, 302; managerial system, failure of 141–69; hierarchical, centrally planned 141–69, 191–92, 202, 229; whistleblowers and 149–69

Wright, Peter 47

 

 

Xenophon 170

 

 

Yale University Press 95–6

Yemen 67

You, Jong-sung 146

YouTube xvii, 283

 

 

Zimbabwe 43, 85–7, 298;
see also
Rhodesia

Zionists 14, 17–18, 49

Zola, Émile 164

About the Author
 

NICK COHEN
is a columnist for the
Observer
. He also writes for
Standpoint
, the
Spectator
and many other titles. He is the author of
Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous
,
Pretty Straight Guys
,
What’s Left?: How the Left Lost its Way
and
Waiting for the Etonians: Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England
. He lives in London.

Other Books by Nick Cohen
 

Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the Preposterous

Pretty Straight Guys

What’s Left?: How the Left Lost its Way

Waiting for the Etonians:

Reports from the Sickbed of Liberal England

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
London W6 8JB
www.4thestate.co.uk

YOU CAN’T READ THIS BOOK
:
Censorship in an Age of Freedom
. Copyright © Nick Cohen 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

The right of Nick Cohen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-00-730890-3

EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-743645-3

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