South Australia's premier said he strongly considered pulling state government funding from Adelaide Writers' Week amid controversy over its line-up, but decided against such a move because it would have been a step "down a path to Putin's Russia".
Three Ukrainian authors have withdrawn from the event in protest against Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa's views about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ms Abulhawa, who is scheduled to speak at the literary festival next week, has accused Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of dragging "the world into the inferno of World War III" — a view described by SA Premier Peter Malinauskas as "patently absurd".
Major sponsors including law firm MinterEllison have also withdrawn support, voicing concerns to organisers about the likelihood of "racist or anti-Semitic commentary" at the event.
Writers' Week gets underway tomorrow but was formally launched last night by Mr Malinauskas, who said he had made it clear to organisers that he would not be attending certain sessions and any "that are associated with anti-Semitism".
Regarding Ms Abulhawa's views on Ukraine, Mr Malinauskas said he had "struggled with" considerations around freedom of speech and "cancel culture".
"Susan Abulhawa … has made references to President Zelenskyy having provoked Russia to attack Ukraine which in my view are patently absurd comments that aren't really worthy of too much recognition," Mr Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.
He said while Ms Abulhawa's views do not accord with those of most of the general public, and that her attendance "doesn't sit comfortably with me", withdrawing funding was not the answer.
"If I make that decision to withdraw funding from a cultural event on the basis of the fact its contents don't accord with my taste, or the government-of-the-day's taste, we start to go down a very dangerous path," he said.
"Event organisers, festival promoters – particularly those that are premised on the whole idea of freedom of speech and contest of thought and debate – they would live in fear that at any moment, if they've got someone appearing that the government of the day doesn't agree with, they'll withdraw funding.
"That then, at its logical extension, takes us to some pretty dangerous places where governments act as a stifler of public debate, and that takes us down a path to wherever Putin's Russia is."
Last month, the SA opposition called on the government to cancel the appearance of Ms Abulhawa, accusing Writers' Week of providing an outlet for propaganda.
Association of Ukraine in SA president Frank Fursenko expressed dismay at Ms Abulhawa's appearance and accused the event's director of being a "useful idiot" in Russia's propaganda machine.
Mr Malinauskas said hate speech was indefensible and should not be given a platform, but said it "would have to take something pretty extraordinary … for the government to start dictating what is and what isn't culturally appropriate".
"There is a profound responsibility on governments, particularly in our democratic system, to ensure freedom of speech isn't compromised by cancel culture, every time something bobs up that we might disagree with," he said.
"The whole idea of Writers' Week is to hear other perspectives, even if we don't particularly like them."
Adelaide Festival artistic director Ruth Mackenzie welcomed the Premier's views, and described Ms Abulhawa as a "serious writer" who has been "acclaimed around the world".
But she declined to comment on Ms Abulhawa's political stance.
"I'm not going to defend or comment on her social media account — that is her right, and it's my right not to comment on it," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"She's not invited because of her Twitter account, she's invited because of her writing.
"This is a free democratic country where it is absolutely the right of audiences to choose to come — or not —to hear the 158 brilliant writers of Writers' Week which includes a focus of dispossessed people, including Palestinians."
Ms Mackenzie also declined to comment on whether security at this year's event had been boosted.
