Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers BBC Reith Lecture on Freedom of Speech

Best-selling Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gives the first of four 2022 Reith Lectures inspired by Franklin D Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” speech.

Is freedom of speech under attack? Cancel culture, and arguments about “wokeness” have produced a febrile atmosphere. Meanwhile, autocrats and populists have undermined the very notion of a fact-based truth which lives above politics. So how do we calibrate freedom in this context?

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explores these themes and more in her BBC Reith Lecture on freedom of speech. Hugh Levinson, BBC Commissioning Editor, said the BBC is

The lecture and question-and-answer session was recorded in London in front of an audience and it was presented by Anita Anand.