Today, readings took place worldwide in support of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who is still imprisoned in China. The readings were coordinated through the internationales literaturfestival berlin, and were held in almost one hundred towns and cities, in thirty-four countries, across the globe. Many of those who took part have sent photos of their event.

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            In Berlin, the internationales literaturfestival berlin hosted a well attended evening reading at the Martin Gropius Bau. Nobel literature laureate Herta Müller, and the human rights lawyer Peter Raue, both spoke about Liu’s unjust incarceration. You can read Herta Müller’s powerful speech here.

Liu was remembered through readings, by professional actors, of the co-written Charter 08, and his poems ‘You wait for Me with Dust’ and ‘Words a Cell Can’t Hold’.

            Listening to, or reading, Charter 08 you realize how seldom those of us who live in free societies pause to reflect on the liberties and privileges we enjoy daily. The Charter also makes you consider how even the most democratic and free societies on our planet fall short on some of the principles laid out in it.

The Charter outlines an ideal that all governments and citizens should aspire to. It is sad and unnecessary that China should feel so threatened by this document. A truly strong society champions those who raise the moral bar. A truly open society values the writers, artists and activists who challenge the status quo, and give us, through their work, glimmers and visions of better worlds.

Knapp zwei Wochen nach Verleihung des Friedensnobelpreises an Liu Xiaobo fordert Mario Vargas Llosa, der diesjährige Literaturnobelpreisträger, die sofortige Freilassung Lius und ruft zu weltweiten Lesungen für den inhaftierten Bürgerrechtler auf.
 
Wie Authors for Peace und das internationale literaturfestival berlin jetzt mitteilten, hat damit bereits der vierte Nobelpreisträger den Appell zur Freilassung Lius unterschrieben.
 
Zu den Unterzeichnern des Aufrufs gehören auch John M. Coetzee, Elfriede Jelinek und Herta Müller.
 
Am 20. März 2011 sollen in Kulturinstitutionen, Radiosendern und Schulen die «Charta 08» für Demokratie und Menschenrechte sowie Lius
Gedicht «Du wartest auf mich im Staub» vorgetragen werden.
 
Der 54-jährige Liu sitzt wegen «Anstiftung zur Untergrabung der Staatsgewalt» für elf Jahre in Haft. Mit anderen Aktivisten hatte Liu die «Charta 08» entworfen. Am 8. Dezember 2008, zwei Tage vor ihrer Veröffentlichung, wurde er festgenommen.

Authors for Peace support the right of the author and activist Arundhati Roy to express her views freely. She faces arrest over remarks made about Kashmir. Authors for Peace condemn all attempts by the Indian authorities to intimidate Ms. Roy, and thus stifle the basic human right of free speech. 

As Arundhati Roy has said: "Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor roam free." (click here to read her full statement)

Reporters without Borders listed India in 122nd place in its Press Freedom Index for 2010. It said the position of the world's largest democracy had slipped 17 places, partly due to the situation in Kashmir where "security forces... sometimes crack down hard on media".