Liu Xiaobo is awarded Nobel Prize; Ceremony taken off air in China

Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions as a human rights activist in Norway. In China meanwhile most of the citizens do not know much about Liu Xiaobo or his work. Xiaobo has been jailed away for the past 11 years for publishing documentation against the government, and the broadcast of his award ceremony was taken off air in China.

Previous laureate President Obama called on China to release Xiaobo from prison. The Peace Prize was awarded to Xiaobo by the chairman of the Nobel committee Jagland by placing it on the empty chair which was meant to represent Xiaobo at the ceremony.

In the history of Nobel Prize this is the second time that the laureate to whom the prize was awarded was not present at the ceremony. Earlier instance took place in Nazi ruled Germany when Carl von Ossietzky was not allowed to attend the ceremony by Hitler regime.

Liu Xiaobo asked his wife to dedicate the prize to those who were killed in the 4th June Tiananmen square massacre. Though he remains relatively unknown to most of the residents of China, Liu Xiaobo has become an international symbol for a group of lawyers and activists in China who work on similar lines.

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