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āSo to Speakā Podcast: Flemming Rose and āThe Tyranny of Silenceā
Flemming Rose didnāt set out to put himself at the center of one of the biggest free speech controversies in recent memory, but 12 years ago he found himself in just that position.
In 2005, Rose commissioned and published what are now widely known as ā.ā The cartoons were his way of exploring the issue of self-censorship surrounding Islam and, in particular, its Prophet Muhammad.
What came next ā.ā
Protests against the cartoons resulted in an estimated 200 reported deaths; there were attacks on the offices of Roseās employer, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten; and Rose was placed on Al-Qaedaās hit list. To this day, he must be accompanied by a security detail when he appears in public.
Flemming Rose is our guest on todayās episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. During the show, we discuss the cartoon controversy and how his thoughts on free speech are informed by his background as a western journalist in the Soviet Union. We also talk about his 2014 book on the cartoon controversy, .
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