Salman Rushdie gets first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award after word was suppressed for his safety
CBSN
New York — The latest honor for Salman Rushdie was a prize kept secret until minutes before he rose from his seat to accept it. On Tuesday night, the author received the first-ever Lifetime Disturbing the Peace Award, presented by the Vaclav Havel Center on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Only a handful of the more than 100 attendees had advance notice about Rushdie, whose whereabouts have largely been withheld from the general public since he was stabbed repeatedly in August of 2022 during a literary festival in Western New York.
"I apologize for being a mystery guest," Rushdie said Tuesday night after being introduced by "Reading Lolita in Tehran" author Azar Nafisi. "I don't feel at all mysterious. But it made life a little simpler."
The Havel center, founded in 2012 as the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, is named for the Czech playwright and dissident who became the last president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Communist regime in the late 1980s. The center has a mission to advance the legacy of Havel, who died in 2011 and was known for championing human rights and free expression. Numerous writers and diplomats attended Tuesday's ceremony, hosted by longtime CBS News journalist Lesley Stahl.
On the eve of the D-Day invasion, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower spent the remaining hours of daylight with the paratroopers who were about to jump behind German lines into occupied France. A single moment captured by an Army photographer became the most enduring image of America's greatest military operation.
This story previously aired on March 6, 2016. Child Advocate: Do you know why you are here today? 911 operator: 911. What is your emergency? 911 operator: Is there anybody else in the house with you? Robin Doan [to 911]: I so hope my mom is not dead. Robin Doan [to 911]: Please can you just send somebody out here? Robin Doan [to 911]: I'm cold. I'm very cold. Robin Doan [to 911]: I heard my mama scream ... Robin Doan [to 911]: I want my mom. I want my mom. Robin Doan [to 911]: It's on Highway 70. It's about 13.3 miles out from the bowling alley. I have a purple shirt on I have purple pants on. Robin Doan [to 911]: All I want right now is my blanket and my pillow. ... I see him. I see him. Robin Doan [advocate interview]: I really don't want to go to sleep anymore. It makes me to where I'm too scared. I really don't want to go to sleep. OK. Robin Doan [advocate interview]: He had shot in my room and missed me. Advocate: Did you hear anybody say anything. Could you hear anybody talking? Robin Doan [advocate interview]: I don't know this for sure but I thought I saw a white eyes ... a white face. Robin Doan [advocate interview]: And when he shot I saw a flash. Robin Doan [advocate interview]: I can't talk about it. It's too heartbreaking. Levi King interrogation: Before I even realized it, I mean, I'd just pointed it at him and fired.