A society in which writers and artists are bound by rules and restrictions is a non-progressive state where people have closed minds and the minorities(like women)are second-class citizens. There is stagnation and the brightest minds have to migrate to a Western country just to breathe freely. Such a country produces no Nobel Prize winners or scientists or writers which go down in History. How many Nobel Prize winners are Saudi Arabian or North Korean or Sudanese? Writers write and if people who have no appreciation of literature or a literary degree consider a Rushdie as 'cheap' that just makes them look stupid. Artists, scientists and Thinkers have different sensibilities from most people. Thank god for that!
