The jailed Chinese dissident leader Liu Xiaobo was given the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia at a ceremony in Oslo on Friday. China voiced strong opposition to the awarding of the peace prize to its dissident leader and dubbed it as a political farce. India was among the 46 nations, including the United States, Britain and France, which attended the ceremony to honour 55-year old Liu. New Delhi had made it clear that its decision to attend the Nobel Peace Prize presentation was not a bilateral issue between India and China. China has blacked out international channels that carried live transmissions of the Nobel Prize ceremony including BBC World News and CNN. Chinese stations did not broadcast the event. Many news websites were also blocked. Liu, a writer and former university professor was at the forefront of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He was jailed in December 2009 for eleven years on subversion charges.