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Pamuk, Desai pull out of Lankan Literature Festival

Audience at the Jaipur Literature Festival might have had the pleasure of listening to Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, but those attending a similar gathering in Sri Lanka will not be that lucky as the celebrated Turkish writer has pulled out from the event.

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Audience at the Jaipur Literature Festival might have had the pleasure of listening to Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, but those attending a similar gathering in Sri Lanka will not be that lucky as the celebrated Turkish writer has pulled out from the event.

Pamuk and his companion, Booker Prize-winning author Kiran Desai, were to travel from Jaipur to the island nation to attend the Galle Literature Festival from January 26-30, but their publishers confirmed that the duo will not be making the trip.

The withdrawal came after Reporters Without Borders launched an appeal signed by personalities like Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky and Ken Loach, exhorting eminent writers to boycott the event in protest against suppression of freedom of speech in Sri Lanka.

The appeal from the group says, “We believe this is not the right time prominent international writers like you to give legitimacy to the Sri Lankan government’s suppression of free speech by attending a conference that does not in any way push for greater freedom of expression inside that country.”

Pamuk, who charmed the literary audience here with his talk on the art of the novel and his works, and Desai, who is also here for the five-day festival, have withdrawn their participation in the Sri Lankan festival but have not given any reason for this.

Penguin official Hemali Sodhi told PTI that Pamuk and Desai have pulled out from the January 26 to 30 Galle Literature Festival, adding the authors have said nothing beyond this.

The media freedom group pointed out that the Galle festival will begin just two days after the second anniversary of journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda’s disappearance.

The appeal said that the journalist was kidnapped in heavily-guarded Colombo on January 24, 2010, a few hours before the presidential elections, after he had written a column praising the Opposition candidate.

The authorities have never given his wife any information about where he might be and the investigation is in limbo, according to the group.

It said 14 journalists have been killed since 2006, three have disappeared, and more than 30 have fled the country under the Mahinda Rajapaksa government.

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