As Hay festival opens in the UAE, authors condemn free speech abuses
Summary
As bestselling authors from Jung Chang to Bernardine Evaristo prepare to gather in Abu Dhabi for the first Hay festival in the United Arab Emirates, leading figures have spoken out against the country’s compromised free speech. Stephen Fry - the festival’s president – has joined more than 40 public figures and organisations castigating its government for “promoting a platform for freedom of expression, while keeping behind bars Emirati citizens and residents who shared their own views and opinions”. “Regrettably, the UAE government devotes more effort to concealing its human rights abuses than to addressing them and invests heavily in the funding and sponsorship of institutions, events and initiatives that are aimed at projecting a favourable image to the outside world,” it says. The former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson pulled out the following year after an open letter, signed by authors including Fry, MPs and campaign groups, called for the release of the jailed Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor. “With the world’s eyes on the Hay festival Abu Dhabi, we urge the Emirati government to consider using this opportunity to unconditionally release our jailed friends and colleagues, and in the interim, to at least allow prisoners of conscience to receive books and reading materials, to have regular visits with family, to be allowed outside their isolation cells to visit the canteen or go outside in the sun,” the letter reads, saying that such a move would “demonstrate that the Hay festival is an opportunity to back up [the UAE ’s] promise of tolerance”.