During the award ceremony held at St Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Rushdie emphasized the critical need for unconditional defence of freedom of expression, which he believes is currently under assault from various quarters, including authoritarian and populist forces.

Rushdie's steadfastness in continuing to write despite enduring decades of threats and violence was acknowledged as he received the German prize, which comes with an endowment of 25,000 euros (approx Rs 22 lakhs).

The German jury's decision to honor Rushdie was based on his resilience, his optimistic outlook on life, and his ability to enrich the world through his storytelling.

The author of the iconic 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" has faced severe challenges to his freedom of expression, dating back to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's condemnation of passages in the book that he considered blasphemous.

Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for Rushdie's death, leading the author to live in hiding. In August 2022, Rushdie was attacked while on stage at a literary festival in New York, resulting in severe injuries, including blindness in his right eye and damage to his left hand.

Despite these adversities, Salman Rushdie is set to release a memoir titled "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder" on April 16, framing it as a response to violence through the medium of art.