RAN Petition for Imprisoned Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo

From PEN USA

Our latest Freedom to Write petition is for our colleague Liu Xiaobo, former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, who will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10, 2010. The awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo is both a cause for celebration and a call to action. It is a reminder that he and more than 40 other writers remain in prison in China; three of them, like Liu, are also PEN members.


Since the announcement of the prize on October 8, 2010, Chinese authorities have tried to undercut the award in every way possible. They have branded Liu a criminal and blocked news reports about the prize; warned foreign governments not to send representatives to the award ceremony; harassed Liu’s supporters, friends, and family; and placed his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest and prevented her and other family members from traveling to Oslo for the official award ceremony on December 10, 2010. Still, Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia, and our colleagues at the Independent Chinese PEN Centre are unbowed, and more and more Chinese citizens are seeking ways around the internet firewall to learn more about their Nobel laureate.



This only makes us more determined to celebrate this extraordinary occasion, and more committed to winning Liu’s release. For more information, please see our RAN petition at http://www.penusa.org/RAN-Liu-Xiaobo.