Well, we do owe them money

I'll need to track down the story links, but wanted to share this now.

Just popped over to my Mum's and, in attempt to wean her off News 24 we tried SKY.

I actually stayed to watch a moving main piece about a Chinese dissident who has been banged up.

Thing is, he's up for a Nobel Prize. Until this point I was unaware of this, or indeed his plight.

Now, before the morning cadres get fisking and linking to Cbeebies to show it's there, I simply express the hope that this story gets the level of support across all media that it deserves.

The courage of this chap, and perhaps even more so his wife, seemed/s incredible.

Buy maybe a celeb with a book out is more what the public wants....? Not a peep that I have seen (important qualifier) from Aunty so far.

Indy - Warning to Nobel prize protesters - Now I know (and not thanks to many media) ...

To whom exactly would Beijng be issuing a warning over this year's Peace Prize choice (report, 26 September)? It seems that the Chinese government is under the same misapprehension as your reporter who writes that the "Norwegian government . . . appoints the Nobel Prize Committee".

In his will (1895) establishing the prize "for champions of peace", Alfred Nobel specified that it was to be awarded "by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting" [Parliament]. The Storting proceeded to elect five members. This committee is independent, and over the years it has become increasingly distanced from the Storting.

In 1937 the latter decided that cabinet ministers should not serve on the committee. The previous year, the prize had been awarded to Carl von Ossietzky, imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp. The Nazi regime had warned Norway that such an award would be seen as an unfriendly act. The committee bravely ignored these protestations while the Norwegian government pointed out the independence of the committee.

Forty years later, the Storting decided that its members should not participate in any non-parliamentary committees that it might appoint. Until 1977, members of the Storting continued to play an important part in the committee. In the same year, it resumed its original name of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, after having been known since the earliest years as the Nobel Committee of the Storting.

If the Chinese government were to issue a formal protest following the award to Hu Jia or another Chinese dissident, the only precedent is Hitler's protestations mentioned above.

Telegraph - China furious at EU human rights award to 'criminal' dissident Hu Jia