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President Obama, who received the peace prize last year, said in a statement that "Mr. Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was."
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Nobel peace ceremony hails absent laureate Liu Xiaobo
AFP, Dec 10, 2010, 05.50pm
China's empty threats have no effect.
OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony began in Oslo Friday without laureate Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, who was represented by an empty chair at the event that has enraged Beijing.
As a small pro-China demonstration went ahead in Oslo, Chinese dissidents, ambassadors from a number of countries, Norway's king and queen and other dignitaries defied Chinese anger to attend the ceremony in a flower-decked Oslo city hall.
In China live broadcasts of the event by CNN and the BBC were blacked out by censors as last year's laureate, US President Barack Obama, hailed Liu as a representative of "universal" values, calling on China to release the jailed dissident "as soon as possible."
Obama, who received the peace prize last year, said in a statement that "Mr. Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was."
Friday marked only the second time in the more than 100-year history of the prize that neither the laureate nor a representative is able to accept the award.
The only other time was when German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was locked up in a Nazi concentration camp, could not travel to Oslo for his prize ceremony in 1936.
Like Ossietzky, who was a critic of the regime under which he lived, Liu has long been an outspoken opponent of Chinese leadership in Beijing.
The writer and former university professor was at the forefront of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
He was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring "Charter 08", a manifesto that spread quickly on the Internet calling for political reform and greater rights in China.
"I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison," Liu said shortly after his sentence was handed down on Christmas Day.
"Now I am taking that step, and true freedom is that much nearer," he added.
In addition to the empty chair, Liu was represented at the event by a photograph, and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was scheduled to read one of his texts.
He will receive his gold medal, Nobel diploma and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.5 million dollars) at a later date.
Beijing has reacted with fury to the prize, describing the Norwegian Nobel Committee as "clowns," and threatening "consequences" for countries that show Liu support and clamping down on media and dissidents at home.
The laureate's wife, Liu Xia, has been placed under house arrest since the prize was announced on October 8, and hours before Friday's ceremony in Oslo, security was strong in front of her Beijing apartment complex, with marked and unmarked police cars lining the road.
While many dissidents in China were blocked from making the trip to Oslo, around 100 Chinese dissidents living abroad were attending the event.
A group of around 50 Chinese demonstrators meanwhile gathered in central Oslo shortly before the prize ceremony to protest the award to Liu.
The protesters, carrying similar yellow posters with slogans in English and Chinese expressing anti-Liu sentiments -- "Law breaker = Peace Prize," and "Peace Prize to China" as well as a long banner stating "Opposition to the Norwegian Nobel Committee" -- were outnumbered by reporters and photographers.
.
-------------------------
Nobel peace ceremony hails absent laureate Liu Xiaobo
AFP, Dec 10, 2010, 05.50pm
China's empty threats have no effect.
OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony began in Oslo Friday without laureate Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, who was represented by an empty chair at the event that has enraged Beijing.
As a small pro-China demonstration went ahead in Oslo, Chinese dissidents, ambassadors from a number of countries, Norway's king and queen and other dignitaries defied Chinese anger to attend the ceremony in a flower-decked Oslo city hall.
In China live broadcasts of the event by CNN and the BBC were blacked out by censors as last year's laureate, US President Barack Obama, hailed Liu as a representative of "universal" values, calling on China to release the jailed dissident "as soon as possible."
Obama, who received the peace prize last year, said in a statement that "Mr. Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was."
Friday marked only the second time in the more than 100-year history of the prize that neither the laureate nor a representative is able to accept the award.
The only other time was when German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was locked up in a Nazi concentration camp, could not travel to Oslo for his prize ceremony in 1936.
Like Ossietzky, who was a critic of the regime under which he lived, Liu has long been an outspoken opponent of Chinese leadership in Beijing.
The writer and former university professor was at the forefront of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
He was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring "Charter 08", a manifesto that spread quickly on the Internet calling for political reform and greater rights in China.
"I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison," Liu said shortly after his sentence was handed down on Christmas Day.
"Now I am taking that step, and true freedom is that much nearer," he added.
In addition to the empty chair, Liu was represented at the event by a photograph, and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was scheduled to read one of his texts.
He will receive his gold medal, Nobel diploma and prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.5 million dollars) at a later date.
Beijing has reacted with fury to the prize, describing the Norwegian Nobel Committee as "clowns," and threatening "consequences" for countries that show Liu support and clamping down on media and dissidents at home.
The laureate's wife, Liu Xia, has been placed under house arrest since the prize was announced on October 8, and hours before Friday's ceremony in Oslo, security was strong in front of her Beijing apartment complex, with marked and unmarked police cars lining the road.
While many dissidents in China were blocked from making the trip to Oslo, around 100 Chinese dissidents living abroad were attending the event.
A group of around 50 Chinese demonstrators meanwhile gathered in central Oslo shortly before the prize ceremony to protest the award to Liu.
The protesters, carrying similar yellow posters with slogans in English and Chinese expressing anti-Liu sentiments -- "Law breaker = Peace Prize," and "Peace Prize to China" as well as a long banner stating "Opposition to the Norwegian Nobel Committee" -- were outnumbered by reporters and photographers.
.
