MCLC: Mo Yan says censorship necessary

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Timothy J.T. Pi <timothy.pi at gmail.com>
Subject: Mo Yan says censorship necessary
***********************************************************

Mo Yan compares censorship to something as necessary as airport security
checks. Job well done, Nobel Committee. Should we be surprised? Mo Yan is
vice chairman of the state-sanctioned Chinese Writers Association.

Timothy

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Source: Vancouver Sun (12/6/12):
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Nobel+literature+winner+believes+censorshi
p+necessary+cases/7659969/story.html#ixzz2EJwMCGDv

Chinese Nobel winner says censorship necessary, dodges calls for
dissident's release

STOCKHOLM - This year's Nobel Prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has
been criticized for his membership in China's Communist Party and
reluctance to speak out against the country's government, defended
censorship Thursday as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the
jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and
compatriot.

Mo has been criticized by human rights activists for not being a more
outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist
Party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice-president.

His comments Thursday, made during a news conference in Stockholm, appear
unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him.

Awarding him the literature prize has also brought criticism from previous
winners. Herta Mueller, the 2009 literature laureate, called the jury's
choice of Mo a "catastrophe" in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens
Nyheter last month. She also accused Mo of protecting the Asian country's
censorship laws.

China's rulers forbid opposition parties and maintain strict control over
all media.

Mo said he doesn't feel that censorship should stand in the way of truth
but that any defamation, or rumours, "should be censored."

"But I also hope that censorship, per se, should have the highest
principle," he said in comments translated by an interpreter from Chinese
into English.

Mo is spending several days in Stockholm before receiving his prestigious
prize in an awards ceremony next Monday.

He won the Nobel for his sprawling tales of life in rural China. In its
citation, the jury said Mo "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales,
history and the contemporary."

In addressing the sensitive issue of censorship in China, Mo likened it to
the thorough security procedures he was subjected to as he travelled to
Stockholm.

"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."

Mo also dodged questions about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Peace Prize winner.
Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for co-authoring a bold
call for ending China's single-party rule and enacting democratic reforms.

China's reception of the two Nobel laureates has been worlds apart.

While it rejected the honour bestowed on Liu, calling it a desecration of
the Nobel tradition, it welcomed Mo's win with open arms, saying it
reflected "the prosperity and progress of Chinese literature, as well as
the increasing influence of China."

Although Mo has previously said he hopes Liu will be freed soon, he
refused to elaborate more on the case.

"On the same evening of my winning the prize, I already expressed my
opinion, and you can get online to make a search," he said, telling the
crowd that he hoped they wouldn't press him on the subject of Liu.

Some, however, have interpreted Mo's October comments as if he hoped the
release of Liu would make the jailed activist see sense and embrace the
Communist Party line.

Earlier this week, an appeal signed by 134 Nobel laureates, from Peace
Prize winners such as South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to
Taiwanese-American chemist Yuan T. Lee, called the detention of Liu and
his wife a violation of international law and urged their immediate
release.

But Mo suggested he had no plans of adding his name to that petition. "I
have always been independent. I like it that way. When someone forces me
to do something I don't do it," he said, adding that has been in his
stance in the past decade.

Mo is to receive his Nobel prize along with the winners in medicine,
physics, chemistry and economics.

The Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in a separate ceremony in Oslo on the
same day.