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AUTHOR BANNED BY COUNCIL
A LEADING author has been gagged by Hackney Council because he has criticised the 2012 Olympics.
Novelist Iain Sinclair has been banned from reading from his new book on the history of the borough at Stoke Newington library after a senior director in the town hall's community services department deemed his views too controversial.
The 65-year-old, who lives in Dalston, branded the decision as absurd and said: "It seems not a small step away from banning or burning books.
Clissold ward councillor Mischa Borris has described the decision as outrageous.
"It is a complete fetter on free speech", she said. "Hackney Council should be prepared to give floor space freely to anyone.
Mr Sinclair supported the Manor Garden Allotments Society after members were forced off their Hackney Wick plots a year ago to make way for the Olympic park.
He also branded the Olympic legacy a "lasting shame" in an article for the London Review of Books this June.
A council spokeswoman justified the decision.
She said: "Iain Sinclair is well-known as an author who has expressed controversial opinions on local issues, such as regeneration and the 2012 Olympic legacy.
"A decision was taken that it would be inappropriate to launch this book about Hackney in a council-owned facility as we do not wish it to appear that the council condones or shares opinions expressed within the book."
She added that the same rules about council-owned facilities would apply to any book expressing controversial or political opinions.
Mr Sinclair, who has lived in Albion Drive since moving to the borough in 1968, said the council could not possibly know the contents of his historical memoir, Hackney, That Rose Red Empire, until it is published next February.
FOR THE FULL STORY SEE THIS WEEK'S GAZETTE AVAILABLE FROM THURSDAY.
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