Booker prize novel sparks free speech row in Czech Republic

Alan Hollinghurst book attacked as ‘pornographic’ after radio broadcasts a short excerpt from it

A Man Booker prize-winning novel exploring gay relationships in Thatcher-era Britain has sparked a row over morality and media independence in the Czech Republic, after it was condemned as “pornographic” when it aired on the country’s leading cultural radio station.

Liberal critics believe the controversy over transmission of an extract from Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty is being whipped up by conservatives to muzzle broadcasters in a move they liken to events in Hungary, where the rightwing government of Viktor Orbán stands accused of curtailing press freedoms and reining in public media outlets.

Hollinghurst isn't the problem, it's just a pretext. The problem is me and open-minded people like me

Continue reading...