Liu Xiaobo Awarded Reporters Without Borders - Foundation de France Prize 2004: A defender of press freedom

The winner is former Beijing University teacher Liu Xiaobo , who heads the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), the only one of its kind in China. Liu is determined that the Chinese media should become a counterweight to the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party. He is tirelessly fighting for the universal ideal of press freedom, calling for the release of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents and posting articles on the Internet and in Hong Kong and diaspora newspapers. For all this he risks being re-arrested at any moment.

By honouring a journalist, a media outlet and a defender of press freedom, Reporters Without Borders and the Fondation de France are alerting people to the wide range of attacks on the right to inform the public and to be informed and to the need to take a stand in favour of press freedom.

Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France Prize

Last updated:December 21, 2004