BEIJING - CHINESE government censors have apparently begun blocking reports on foreign television networks about Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo in the run-up to Friday's award ceremony in Oslo.
Both CNN and BBC were intermittently blacked out on Friday, after access to the websites of both networks and Norwegian public broadcaster NRK was interrupted on the mainland on Thursday.
When Mr Liu was named the peace prize winner two months ago, reports of the news were blacked out on CNN, BBC and French satellite channel TV5, while the state network China Central Television did not report on the prize.
Mr Liu, 54, was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring Charter 08, a petition calling for political reform in one-party Communist Party-ruled China.
China, which is furious over the award, has ignored any positive take on the Nobel prize given to Mr Liu, only reporting the news in state media accounts of Beijing's opposition to the Nobel committee's choice.
'CNN.com is completely blocked ... Every time our reports are broadcast about the Nobel Prize winner, the television screens black out,' CNN Beijing bureau chief Jaime FlorCruz said in comments posted on the network's website.
Source: ST Online/AFP
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