Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Liu Xiaobo's wife fears China may prevent Nobel prize collection

Guardian.co.uk 
The wife of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo fears the Chinese government will prevent her from collecting the peace prize on her husband's behalf amid rising anger in Beijing at the announcement.Liu Xia said police officers had surrounded her home and warned her that she could not leave without a minder."They have told me not to go out, not to visit friends. If I want to see my parents or buy food, I can only go in their car," she said. "I don't even talk to my neighbours because I don't want to get them into trouble."

During a prison visit on Sunday, Liu Xiaobo asked her to collect the prize at the ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on 10 December. But she was doubtful she would get as far as the airport.

AFP
As soon as dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, China's censorship machine kicked in to suppress the news, but not even that could muzzle web users, especially those on Twitter.

When the prize was announced on Friday in Oslo, the communist regime's propaganda department moved quickly to prevent any mention in its media -- television, radio, press, phone services and the Internet were all affected. Those who attempted to send text messages containing Liu's Chinese name found them blocked.

Initial reports on Liu on foreign networks such as CNN, BBC and French satellite channel TV5 were blacked out. And on popular Chinese web portals such as Sina or Sohu, the Nobel announcement was nowhere to be seen.

No comments:

Post a Comment