CENZURA ȘI OFENSA ÎN SPAȚIUL VIRTUAL (CENSORSHIP AND OFFENSE IN THE VIRTUAL SPACE)

Abstract

Chinese writer and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo received his 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia while being under arrest for what the Communist regim in Beijing considered to be subversive actions against national integrity. Mo Yan, a fellow writer highly respected in China, is the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. In an interview given just days before the Nobel ceremony at Stockholm, Mo Yan spoke in favour of censorship and against freedom of expression. In liberal democracies, people are entitled to free speech although in some cases the limits of this freedom are intensely debated. This paper aims to briefly tell the story of the two Chinese intellectuals and to tackle the issue of whether or not censorship should be admitted in liberal countries.