In the Footsteps of Gandhi, Mandela and Havel

China's government has blocked Liu's wife, the acclaimed photographer Liu Xia, from participating by keeping her under virtual house arrest in Beijing. It has browbeaten other countries into boycotting the award ceremony.

Not surprisingly, Vladimir Putin's Russia was among the first to kowtow to China's diktat. More ominously, it looked for a while like the Norwegian Nobel committee itself might bow to Beijing, too. But in the end it decided to go ahead with the award. That is only fitting: an award for moral courage ought not to be compromised by those offering it.