Hay Festival 2012: Lindsey Hilsum on freedom of speech But after a while, Mohammed began to have doubts. "It was one Ramadan that Muammar started hanging people," he recalled. We would see it on TV after we had broken fast in the evening, when everyone was watching. Mohammed told me how one day a band of men surrounded the souk, capturing him and others. It was the press-gang - he was sent to Tajikistan for military training and spent 11 years in the army, including fighting the futile war in Chad. My book Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution is a celebration of that moment, as I tell the story of the Gaddafi years and the 2011 uprising through the eyes of Libyans I met. After 42 years they were desperate to talk. I tell the story of Wanise Elisawi, incarcerated for 19 years in the notorious Abu Salim prison, and an eyewitness to the 1996 massacre in which 1,270 prisoners were killed. Women told me how, out of sight of TV cameras, they had run secret hospitals, or spied for the rebels during the uprising - they had lost their fear not only of Gaddafi but of men who might want to restrict them. One woman who had been close to Gaddafi told me why she still loved 'The Guide. In the last year, Libyans have been talking, writing, painting, sculpting and singing as never before. But now the post-revolutionary explosion of expression is in jeopardy. The interim government, so quick to condemn everything about Gaddafi, has adopted similar curbs on freedom of speech. Under Law 37, passed on May 2 spreading "false or vicious news" or "propaganda" that harms "military efforts to defend the country, terrorises people, or weakens the morale of citizens" is a criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment. Included in "propaganda" is glorification of Gaddafi and his regime. Charges can also be brought against anyone who "insults Islam, or the prestige of the state or its institutions or judiciary, and every person who publicly insults the Libyan people, slogan or flag." According to Human Rights Watch, the new government has even copied an article of Libya's penal code from the Gaddafi era, which banned any "damage to the great al-Fattah Revolution or its leader." "Al-Fattah" was the revolution which brought Gaddafi to power. They've simply replaced that phrase with "February 17th revolution." New revolution, same old law. I can only hope that Libyans will reject this law when a new constitution is drafted later this year. They endured four decades of enforced silence. If they do not defend the freedom of expression they have enjoyed since ousting Gaddafi, the new Libya will not be the country they dreamt of when telling their stories for the first time. Sponsored by Google Lindsey Hilsum talks to David Aaronovitch, Friday 1 June 2012, 7.45pm • Venue: Llwyfan Cymru - Wales Stage. [event 29] www.hayfestival.com