Journalist Shoma Chaudhury says novelist Salman Rushdie embodies the 'principle of free speech' and she was shocked to hear about his stabbing.
Mr Rushdie has had a fatwa calling for his death for his novel The Satanic Verses since 1989.
'He's irreverent, he's willing to push boundaries, he is willing to stand by what he believes in,' Ms Chaudbury told Sky News host Rowan Dean.
'At the heart of free speech is the individual human spirit.'
