Dangers of
the writing life

>>Writers in Peril a new focus of
workshops and talks at Blue Metropolis

EXPRESSION THREATENED WORLDWIDE: RSF’s François Bugingo

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Burly, surly bodyguards aren’t the norm at Blue Metropolis, Montreal’s annual literary festival. But when you invite Roberto Saviano, that’s what you have to put up with. Saviano, an Italian journalist and author of Gomorra, an exposé of the Neapolitan Camorra crime family, is living and travelling with a constant police escort following very public threats against his life. Saviano is the kind of “national hero”—in the words of Italian novelist and intellectual Umberto Eco—who, before the age of 30, exemplifies the best and worst of courageous writing. The best, in that his book sparked a renewal of interest in the terrible cost organized crime wreaks on southern Italy and the world, and the worst, in that his courage may cost him his life.

But he isn’t the only one whose printed words have put him at risk. This year, for the first time, Blue Met is hosting a Writers in Peril series of talks and workshops, in conjunction with Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international press freedom organization. Besides Saviano, invitees include Fidel Castro’s daughter and critic Alina Fernandez, Algerian cartoonist Ali Dilem, Senegalese women’s rights advocate Mariètou Mbaye Biléoma (who writes under the name Ken Bugul), former East German dissident Anke Feuchtenberger and others.

“Reporters Without Borders usually is not involved with writers, but often writers play the role of journalist as well,” says RSF’s local representative François Bugingo and Blue Met workshop host. He says writers of conscience, be they “officially” journalists or not, are facing more threats than ever today, and from more sources.

“For some time, there has been this certitude that free speech is being threatened only by radical Islamists, that they’re the only ones responsible,” he says. “But there are also all kinds of others, from Italian mafioso to traditionalists in West Africa who are opposed to women’s rights.”

Globalization being the double-edged sword that it is, Bugingo says weaker borders and increased telecommunications have been both a boon and a curse to writers and their work. “Things have become worse for writers for two reasons,” he says. “First, they internationalize literature, and that brings a lot more prestige to writers. Some have become like rock stars. They can be extremely important in terms of political influence. If you look at someone like Salman Rushdie, it becomes a problem for all the enemies of free speech because he became a threat.

“Second, and more dramatically, is the Internet…. The entire planet knows their thoughts, and those who don’t like them can accelerate their repression. The situation has become more precarious.”

Just as literature crosses boundaries, so do threats, he says. “This is not only the reality in the South or in the former Soviet bloc. Western societies are now threatened as they become more multi-ethnic. Denmark is the best known example of course, but there’s also Spain with the Basques, and the Netherlands. The saddest part is, it’s spreading…. Europe is no longer so peaceful and free of danger.”

(Press freedoms are being challenged in Canada as well. The Canadian Association of Journalists issued an outraged denunciation last week following Montreal police’s seizure of press footage and photos of the Canadiens victory riots on Monday, April 21.)

Friday, May 2 is World Press Freedom Day, and RSF will launch its annual list of the world’s worst press predators, as well as a report on the rising threats to press freedom in Europe. For more info, see www.rsf.org. For a schedule and list of speakers at Blue Metropolis, see bluemetropolis.org.