News Release

“Nobel Committee Gets Peace Prize Wrong Yet Again”

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The Nobel Peace Prize this year is being awarded to Maria Ressa from the Philippines who founded Rappler and Dmitry Muratov, a founder of the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Fredrik Heffermehl of Nobel Peace Prize Watch tweeted this morning: “Again, the Nobel Committee has its loyalty to the United States and NATO and is pointing its finger at Russia rather than criticizing U.S. imperial power for eradicating global press power in its revenge on [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange. The same forces support military bases for the United States in Norway.”

DAVID SWANSON, davidcnswanson@gmail.com, @davidcnswanson
    Executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org, Swanson just wrote the piece “Nobel Committee Gets Peace Prize Wrong Yet Again,” which states: “The Nobel Committee has yet again awarded a peace prize that violates the will of Alfred Nobel and the purpose for which the prize was created, selecting recipients who blatantly are not ‘the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.

    “That there are numerous candidates who plausibly meet the criteria and could have been appropriately awarded a Nobel Peace Prize is established by the list of nominees published by Nobel Peace Prize Watch.”

    World Beyond War is associated with the War Abolisher Awards which were given out two days ago. Three awards were presented. The Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher of 2021: Peace Boat. The David Hartsough Lifetime Individual War Abolisher of 2021: Mel Duncan. The War Abolisher of 2021: Civic Initiative Save Sinjajevina.

    Swanson added: “The trouble with the Nobel Peace Prize has long been and remains that it often goes to warmongers, that it often goes to good causes that have little direct connection to abolishing war, and that it often favors the powerful rather than those in need of funding and prestige to support good work. This year it has been awarded to another good cause that has little direct connection to abolishing war. Although virtually every topic can be tangentially connected to war and peace, the avoidance of actual peace activism intentionally misses the point of the prize’s creation by Alfred Nobel and the influence of Bertha von Suttner.”

    Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressa and Rappler are funded by the Omidyar Network and the U.S. government through the National Endowment for Democracy. Rappler also has a partnership with Facebook.

    “The prize has also been used to advance the propaganda of some of the world’s major war makers. Awards like this year’s have been used to denounce violations of human rights in non-Western nations targeted in the weapons-funding propaganda of Western nations. This record allows Western media outlets each year to speculate before the prize announcement on whether it will go to favorite propaganda topics, such as Alexei Navalny. The actual recipients this year are from Russia and the Philippines, Russia being the primary target of U.S. and NATO war preparations, including the primary excuse for the construction of new military bases in Norway.”