This is a privacy blog, however there are times when the right to freedom of speech and personal privacy overlap somewhat. Hence I am sure that I am not alone in feeling delighted at the award of the Nobel prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波).
There is more: on October 11, 23 Chinese Communist Party elders known for their pro-reform positions, including Mao Zedong’s former secretary Li Rui (李锐) and former People’s Daily editor-in-chief Hu Jiwei (胡绩伟), submitted an open letter to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, formally China’s highest state body, calling for an end to restrictions on expression in China. Read more at the China Media Project.
http://www.cfr.org/china/media-censorship-china/p11515
I am not in the slightest delighted that he has won the Nobel Peace Prize, as they could have waited at least until he had been released!
If I had spent a large proportion of the last 20 years under house arrest, and been subjected to beatings and torture, the last thing I would want, for my family and I, would be to win this prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize hasn’t been the same since Al Gore and Obama won it anyway.