Chinese Authorities Prohibit SARS Whistleblower from Attending Award Ceremony

According to an AP report carried on Channel News Asia's website, a spokeswoman for the Ramon Magsaysay international award foundation has said that Chinese authorities refused to grant 72-year-old Jiang Yanyong travel papers and he will be represented at the ceremony on Tuesday by his brother. The report states that, in the award citation, the foundation said that "in 2003, as the virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome swept unacknowledged into Beijing, he (Jiang) broke Chinas habit of silence and forced the truth of SARS into the open."