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Salman Rushdie's publicity schedule for his new memoir will be unaffected by the increase in the bounty placed on his head, his publisher has said.
Vintage publisher Dan Franklin said the move by Hassan Sanei of the Iranian state-run institute 15 Khordad to increase the bounty on the author's head by a further $500,000 to $3.3m was "totally cynical" and "jumping on the bandwagon" of the furore surrounding the US anti-Islam film which has sparked anger in the Middle East and North Africa. Rushdie's publicity schedule for Josef Anton (Jonathan Cape) would not be affected "in the slightest", Franklin said.
But English PEN condemned the development as "a new threat" to the author's life. Director Jo Glanville said: "This is a cynical attempt to exploit the violence of the past week. It seeks to incite murder, sow division and further escalate an international controversy. We support the liberty of writers everywhere to explore and question ideas, including the discussion of religion, without facing any risk to their own life or to the lives of those who publish or translate their work."
Writer Lisa Appignanesi commented: "Yet again a novelist is being used by politicians in their political machinations. Rushdie needs vocal support from anyone who believes in the good that free expression and unhindered imagination bring to our societies."
Rushdie's publicity schedule includes events at the Bloomsbury Theatre later this month and at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in October.