The world’s foremost literary champion of freedom of expression receives one of culture’s most distinguished accolades at a landmark ceremony in London

Liberatum, the international cultural diplomacy organisation, presented its 14th Cultural Honour to Sir Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born British and American author, literary giant, and indomitable defender of free expression, at a landmark ceremony on Wednesday 8th July 2026 at Town Hall by Bottaccio in King’s Cross, London.

The evening marked a historic double milestone: the presentation of one of the cultural world’s most coveted honours, and the celebration of Liberatum’s 25th anniversary, a quarter-century of championing cultural diplomacy, cross-cultural exchange, and the enduring power of art to speak truth.

The ceremony reflected Liberatum’s ongoing commitment to cultural activism and to fostering global dialogue at the intersection of culture, art and human rights. It was both a celebration of an extraordinary life and a powerful call to action, placing freedom of speech as a non-negotiable right for our shared future.

Liberatum, in partnership with Town Hall by Bottaccio, paid tribute to Sir Salman’s profound role as a champion of freedom of expression and to his remarkable literary achievements, honouring the full breadth of his life’s work, and celebrating his enduring contribution to fostering cultural understanding across the world.

A VOICE THAT COULD NOT BE SILENCED

Sir Salman Rushdie is among the most consequential writers of our age. The Booker Prize-winning author of Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses has produced a body of work that has reshaped world literature and endured, at extraordinary personal cost, to remain one of the most fearless voices in its defence.

In August 2022, Sir Salman survived a near-fatal attack at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. An act of violence that sent shockwaves through the global literary community and reignited an urgent, worldwide conversation about the safety of artists and the fragility of free expression. His response to continue writing, to continue speaking, and to publish Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder in 2024 was met with worldwide admiration and confirmed what many had long believed: that Sir Salman Rushdie is not merely a writer, but a symbol of literature’s refusal to be intimidated. The Liberatum ceremony was a public reaffirmation of that admiration.

THE 14TH LIBERATUM CULTURAL HONOUR

Liberatum’s Cultural Honour has, over sixteen years, been awarded to individuals who have not only achieved the highest levels of artistic distinction but who have used their platform to expand the boundaries of human possibility. Past Cultural Honour recipients such as Dame Zaha Hadid, Francis Ford Coppola and Chief Raoni of the Kayapo people in the Brazilian Amazon represent a constellation of creative and human greatness — figures whose work has defined their disciplines and shaped the culture of our times.

Sir Salman Rushdie now stands in the fullest tradition of that legacy. His selection for the 14th Cultural Honour reflected Liberatum’s enduring commitment to recognising artists who embody the organisation’s founding values: courage, creativity, and the conviction that culture is never merely decorative, it is vital and essential.

With freedom of expression increasingly under threat in more places and more ways than at any point in recent memory, that commitment has never felt more urgent. Liberatum’s decision to honour Sir Salman Rushdie was a cultural statement as much as a celebration.

LIBERATUM AT 25: A QUARTER-CENTURY OF CULTURAL COURAGE

Founded in 2001, Liberatum has spent twenty-five years at the intersection of culture, ideas, purpose, global dialogue and social good, convening some of the world’s most celebrated visionaries to raise consciousness through the cultural lens on important issues facing humanity. From Nobel laureates and Academy Award winners to pioneering visual artists, filmmakers, athletes, architects and musicians, past participants have included Sir VS Naipaul, Nicole Kidman, Frank Gehry, Pelé, Julie Taymor, David Hockney, Viola Davis, Marianne Faithfull and Sir David Attenborough.

Over two and a half decades, Liberatum has created wide-ranging, multidimensional cultural programmes across five continents, open to the public free of charge, building a singular community of artists, thinkers, change-makers, audiences and patrons united by the belief that culture is the highest form of human communication, and that its freedom must be passionately defended.

The 25th anniversary ceremony on 8 July, in partnership with Town Hall by Bottaccio, was a celebration of that history and a reaffirmation of the values that have guided it. There could have been no more fitting way to mark this milestone than by honouring a creative mind whose life’s work, and whose life itself, embodies everything Liberatum stands for.

THE PROGRAMME: VOICES IN TRIBUTE

The Liberatum Cultural Honour ceremony brought together an exceptional gathering of creative voices from the United Kingdom, United States and India in tribute to Sir Salman and to the values his work represents.

The evening opened with a reading from Sir Salman’s work by Indian filmmaker and writer Mozez Singh.

Bharti Kher, the renowned contemporary Indian artist, reflected on Sir Salman’s cultural and artistic impact; her work across sculpture, installation and painting has placed her among the most internationally significant artists of her generation, known for transformative work that draws on mythology, femininity and the politics of identity, and her contribution underscored the deep resonance of Sir Salman’s work across the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora.

Geordie Greig, editor-in-chief of The Independent and former editor of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and The Evening Standard, spoke on free speech, literature and public discourse, bringing a journalist’s understanding of the stakes of free expression and a personal commitment to the idea that a free press and a free literature are not separate causes, but one and the same.

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, the acclaimed American poet, novelist and visual artist, offered a personal reflection, bringing her singular command of language as both art and witness to bear on the themes at the heart of the honour.

The centrepiece of the evening was a wide-ranging on-stage conversation with Sir Salman Rushdie, moderated by Michael Harris, Director of Programming at Town Hall, in which he reflected on his life, his work and his views on literature and public discourse today.

The Liberatum Cultural Honour was presented by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, one of Britain’s most distinguished human rights lawyers and a longstanding champion of civil liberties, and Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, whose project remains one of the most radical experiments in free expression of the past quarter-century: the idea that knowledge belongs to everyone, and that the free flow of information is not a luxury but a right.

Together, the evening’s contributors spanning visual art, poetry, film, fiction, journalism, the law and technology offered a reminder of how many forms of expression are worth defending.

Following the formal programme, guests continued the celebration at a champagne reception and light supper.

Guests at the event included Vanessa Branson, Kathy Lette, Celia Imrie, Helen Fielding, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chanelle Newman, Akala, Subodh Gupta, Bishi Bhattacharya, Amma Asante and Tina Brown.