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All eyes on Nobel Peace Prize, highlight of awards week
OSLO, Oct 9, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Nobel Peace Prize, the highlight of the
annual awards week, will be announced Friday, with press freedom watchdogs,
Greta Thunberg and the World Health Organization seen as possible laureates
in a field wide open.
The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, will
reveal the 2020 laureate or laureates at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) at the Nobel
Institute in Oslo, where coronavirus restrictions will drastically reduce the
usual throng of reporters in attendance.
This year, 318 nominees were known to be under consideration — 211
individuals and 107 organisations.
But the names on the list are kept secret for 50 years, making predictions
difficult.
“There are good reasons for a prize in the field of journalism,” said
Sverre Lodgaard, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International
Affairs (NUPI).
“In order for decision-makers to intervene in a conflict, they must be able
to build an opinion based on accurate information provided by the media,” he
explained.
Since the first Nobel prizes were awarded in 1901, the Peace Prize has
never honoured work in the field of freedom of information.
But the time may have come, experts say, citing Reporters Without Borders
(known by its French acronym RSF) and the US-based Committee for the
Protection of Journalists (CPJ) as possible winners.
Climate campaigners could also get the nod, 13 years after the UN’s climate
science advisory panel IPCC and former US vice president Al Gore won.
Swedish teenage activist Thunberg could in such case be honoured, either
alone, with other activists, or with her “Fridays for Future” movement.
The four women crowned so far this year with a Nobel is more than usual,
closing in on 2009’s record of five female winners.
On Thursday, American poet Louise Gluck won the literature prize,
Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the US shared the
chemistry prize on Wednesday, and Andrea Ghez of the US shared the physics
prize with two male colleagues on Tuesday.
Will Thunberg join this prestigious club?
With her “School Strike for the Climate”, the 17-year-old has raised public
awareness about the dangers of global warming and mobilised millions of
youths across the planet.
“Climate change is in the long term much more serious” than Covid-19, Nobel
historian Asle Sveen told AFP.
She would be the second-youngest Nobel laureate in history, just behind
Pakistani activist Malala, and the 18th woman to win the Peace Prize.
– Nobel in pandemic year –
As the world reels from the most serious pandemic in a century, the five
members of the Nobel committee may also choose to support multilateral
efforts — as opposed to nationalistic trends — to combat the virus.
In such a case the World Health Organization (WHO) could take home the
prestigious prize, according to some observers, even though its response to
the crisis has been criticised.
Last year, the award went to a more traditional laureate, Ethiopian Prime
Minister Abiy Ahmed, for his efforts to end a 20-year-postwar stalemate with
Eritrea. His country now faces inter-ethnic violence and police crackdowns on
anti-government protests.
Many other names of possible Nobel winners have also been circulating in
Oslo, including Afghan peace negotiator and women’s rights activist Fawzia
Koofi, the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN and its secretary general
Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the icon of Sudan’s
revolution Alaa Salah.
Those eligible to nominate candidates for the prize are also allowed to
disclose their choice.
As a result, those believed to be on the list include the people of Hong
Kong, Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, NATO, indigenous Brazilian leader and
environmentalist Raoni Metuktire, and the whistleblower trio of Julian
Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.
Tens of thousands of people around the world — members of parliament and
government ministers, some university professors, former laureates, etc —
are allowed to submit nominations to the Nobel committee.
The Nobel prize — which consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a cheque
for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, 950,000 euros) — will be
presented to the winner on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of
Swedish industrialist and philanthropist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes
in his will.
Depending on the coronavirus restrictions in place at the time, it will
either be awarded in-person at a scaled-back ceremony in Oslo, or remotely in
an online ceremony.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1005 hrs