Censorship News

 
CBC Radio Stops Author from Reading Mein Kampf
By Franklin Carter

During Freedom to Read Week in Canada, CBC Radio prevented author Yann Martel from reading Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the air.

On March 1, 2007, Martel was scheduled to appear on CBC Radio’s The Afternoon Edition in Saskatchewan. He had planned to read excerpts from Mein Kampf, which explains Hitler’s political views before the Second World War.

“It is a horrible book, but a horrible important book,” Martel said. “The best way to deal with evil is to address it, to look at it, to get to know it, but not to ignore it.”

The CBC had asked Martel to appear on The Afternoon Edition because he was scheduled that evening to read a challenged or banned book at the Frances Morrison Library in Saskatoon. The reading at the library was part of Freedom to Read Week. Martel had chosen to read Mein Kampf.

But half an hour before the interview began on CBC Radio, Martel received a call from the show’s producer, Joanne Skidmore. She relayed a message from a senior executive.

“I was called by the producer and told that CBC did not want me to read from the book, though I could talk about it,” Martel said. “The producer herself was not happy about this decision.”

Martel spoke for more than 12 minutes on the air about Mein Kampf. He described the book as propaganda and a collection of half-baked ideas. Martel said that he had been told not to read the book on the air.

Jeff Keay, a CBC spokesman, recognized the irony of stopping an author from reading a challenged book during Freedom to Read Week. But Keay said the CBC’s decision best served listeners.

“Worse-case scenario, someone’s driving down the road and they turn on the radio and suddenly without any context or mediation they’re listening to Mein Kampf,” Keay said. “We’re very comfortable with the decision as we made it.”

Later that day, Martel appeared with two other authors at the Frances Morrison Library in Saskatoon. He read Mein Kampf unhindered to the audience.

In 2002, Martel won the Man Booker Prize for his novel, Life of Pi. He is currently writing a book about the Holocaust.

Mein Kampf, which means My Struggle, was first published in Germany in 1925. It is legally sold and read in Canada.