【09.10.21 N.Y Times】 Book Fair Manager Dismissed Over China Contretemps

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Book Fair Manager Dismissed Over China Contretemps

By STEVEN ERLANGER

Published: October 21, 2009

PARIS — The Frankfurt Book Fair, which struggled to find a balancebetween free speech and honoring China as its featured country,dismissed its project manager after yet another embarrassing refusal tolet Chinese dissidents speak.


The fair, the world’s largest and most important, ended on Sunday witha traditional ceremony cohosted by the German Foreign Ministry. But twoChinese dissident writers, journalist Dai Qing and poet Bei Ling, werenot allowed to address the closing ceremony, despite what they saidwere invitations to do so.


Fair organizers later fired Peter Ripken, 67, who was the projectmanager for the trade show’s international center, blaming him for“persistent coordination problems in connection with this year’s guestof honor, China.”Mr. Ripken said that it was the German ForeignMinistry, which has refused to comment, that did not want thedissidents to speak, and told Deutsche Welle: “The foreign ministry hasstated explicitly that this fair is not there just for China, and Iacted in accordance with this wish.” He said that the Chinese writerswere never formally invited to address the closing ceremony.The fairorganizers also blamed Mr. Ripken for a similar embarrassment inmid-September, when a symposium on China ended in walkouts, apologiesand confusion. The same two Chinese writers were invited, and wereremoved from the symposium by Mr. Ripken after Beijing protested. Butafter an uproar among German journalists and diplomats, the invitationwas reinstated, but not to speak from the podium along with theofficial Chinese delegation.


When the dissidents spoke from the floor, the Chinese walked out, andonly returned after an apology made to them by the fair’s director,Jürgen Boos.


Mr. Bei told Deutsche Welle that Mr. Ripken had told him that theForeign Ministry opposed the dissidents’ participation in the closingceremony, apparently believing that Beijing’s nerves had beensufficiently jangled by the fair itself.


More than 290,000 people visited the fair, down 9,000 from 2008.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/europe/22books.html?_r=1

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