Chinese Nobel Prize-Winner Says We Need Censorship Like We Need Airport Security
from the super-silly-or-super-subtle? dept
This year's winner of the Nobel prize in literature, the Chinese writer Mo Yan, was a controversial choice. Some saw him as too close to the Chinese establishment, and thus insufficiently heroic -- unlike the previous Chinese Nobel prize-winner, the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
While Mo was in Stockholm to pick up his prize, he gave a press conference where, inevitably, he was asked about this:In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he traveled to Stockholm.Some will see this as confirming his supine attitude to state censorship. But maybe it's just an extremely subtle attack on airport security...
"When I was taking my flight, going through the customs ... they also wanted to check me even taking off my belt and shoes," he said. "But I think these checks are necessary."
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Filed Under: censorship, china, free speech, mo yan, security