By GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
Added: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Sancus for the link.

Reposted from:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/05/08/listen_to_steph.html

One of the most talked-about events at last year's Guardian Hay Festival was the Blasphemy Debate, chaired by Joan Bakewell and inspired by the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, which had been announced in the Queen's Speech the previous month. The speakers at the debate were the actor and writer Stephen Fry and the journalist Christopher Hitchens, and their frequently heated discussion covered issues of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, multiculturalism and orthodoxy. It was a fascinating, though-provoking and - as you'd expect from two such consummate orators - extremely entertaining event, and as a warm-up to this year's Hay Festival, the good people at Radio Hay, the festival's online broadcaster, have kindly allowed us to offer you the chance to hear it for yourself. Click here to listen to the debate on your computer (MP3; 78mins), or paste http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/podcast.xml into the Podcasts bit of iTunes or your RSS reader, to subscribe to the Culture Vulture feed and receive all the Vulture's podcasts as they become available.

Radio Hay has been broadcasting live events from the Hay Festival over the internet for the past five years, and the response last year was such that they will this year be offering a selection of events for download to mobile devices. They will also be developing the service further and exploring the 20-year Hay archive from all their festivals across the world, to create a comprehensive, searchable library of Hay Festival audio and video material.

So, if you're unable to make the Festival yourself this year, or if you're there but can't decide between seeing Sarah Waters talking to Rosie Boycott about The Night Watch and listening to Seamus Heaney, Don Paterson, James Fenton and Margaret Atwood at the Poetry Gala, log on to the Hay Festival Archive, and start downloading.

Radio Hay is produced for the Guardian Hay Festival by Surestate and streamed by Stream UK.

TAGGED: RELIGION, SPEECHES