On air at 1100GMT: Aung San Suu Kyi's Reith Lectures
| 10:15 UK time, Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Ìý
This topic was
discussed on 28 June 2011. Listen to the .
Ìý
Ìý
Today we have a special programme, carrying the first of this year's Reith Lectures delivered by Aung San Suu Kyi.
The pro democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, was secretly recorded in Burma,
"she speaks movingly of the price she and fellow activists have paid while travelling what she calls the "hard road to freedom" - and of her heartfelt belief in the justice of their cause, which sustained her during nearly 15 years in jail or under house arrest."
Ìý
Her two lectures, one broadcast today and one next week, will discuss the themes of dissent and liberty and are part of a wider series, entitled 'Securing Freedom', reflecting on global events of the past year.
Former MI5 Director-General Baroness Manningham-Buller will present three further lectures in September.
Aung San Suu Kyi said:
"When I was under house arrest, it was the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that spoke to me - I listened.
Ìý
The Reith Lectures were created as a "stimulus to thought and contribution to knowledge", and were named in honour of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s first Director-General, Lord Reith.
The inaugural lectures were given by the philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell in 1948. Past Reith lecturers have included the "father of the atomic bomb" Robert Oppenheimer; Canadian economist JK Galbraith; architect Sir Richard Rogers; and pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.
In the lecture Ms Suu Kyi talks about how the Burmese people are as excited about the events in the Arab world as anyone else. She says there are notable similarities with Tunisia. Both started with unimportant events. One humble man showed that his right to dignity was more important than anything else.
How does she inspire people involved in the Arab spring? To some she is . One ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ reporter explained how a woman in Syria had led demonstrators onto the street in the face of army snipers, using Aung as inspiration.
Currently trending on twitter is the news that Michelle Yeoh, the actress cast to play Aung San Suu Kyi in a forthcoming film, has been barred from entering Burma.
We'll be playing Aung San Suu Kyi's lecture in full and getting your reaction to it.
