Empty chair at Nobel Peace Prize ceremony

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Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing to find out whether people in China were able to follow today’s proceedings in Oslo, where the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. His absence was marked symbolically by an empty chair. Download MP3

Nobel reading

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At today’s Nobel ceremony in Oslo, actress Liv Ullman read from a speech Liu Xiabo made ahead of his sentencing last year. We have an excerpt. Download MP3

China, the Nobel and Soft Power

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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Oslo, Norway. An empty chair will highlight the recipient’s absence. Human rights activist Liu Xiaobo is in China, serving an 11-year prison sentence for helping to write and circulate a petition. The Chinese government is furious about Liu’s award and has gone to great lengths to hush up news of the award back home. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing. Download MP3

Peace prize impact on dissident winners

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Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Peter Osnos, former foreign correspondent and currently editor-at-large of Public Affairs. Osnos recalls the impact of the Nobel Peace Prize on the lives of other dissidents who have won in the past, including Russian physicist Andrew Sakharov and Poland’s Lech Walesa. Download MP3

China still livid at Nobel winner

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China is still livid over the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident, Liu Xiaobo. Today, Chinese authorities blocked the dissident’s lawyer from travelling overseas, ahead of the Nobel ceremony next month. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets the big picture from The World’s Beijing correspondent, Mary Kay Magistad. Download MP3

Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel

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Author and political activist Liu Xiaobo has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Liu, who is known as one of China’s leading dissidents, is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for “subverting state power” after helping write a manifesto, called Charter 08, which calls for political change in China. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad has the story. Download MP3
>>Read 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo’s final statement

Chinese dissident on trial for subversion

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Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (pictured with his wife Liu Xia in 2002) has gone on trial in Beijing on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu, a prominent government critic and veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, could be jailed for 15 years if convicted. He has been in jail since 2008, after being arrested for writing a document calling for political reform in China. The US, EU, and human rights groups say the trial is politically motivated and have called on Beijing to release Liu. China has dismissed criticism of the trial as an “unacceptable” attempt to interfere in its internal affairs. Mary Kay Magistad reports.

• BBC coverage
• Human Rights Watch: “Trial travesty of justice”