The Nobel Institute has revealed that this year the internet is amongst 237 nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Topping last year’s nomination number of 205, Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute said that “thousands of nominations” had been received, adding “Some were nominated by one person, others by 10, others by 100.”
Whilst the Nobel Institute itself has never revealed the full list of nominees, nor who nominated individuals, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the prize in 2003 expressed his full support for the internet’s nomination as did the Internet for Peace who said a win would mean “a Nobel for each and every one of us.” Nominations come from a number of sources, including national government members, selected professors at university’s and former laureates. Meanwhile, as hundreds of nominations did not make the final list, other individuals vying for the prize are through to include Liu Xiaobo, Chinese activist and Svetlana Gannushkina, a Russian human right’s activist.
After their first meeting on March 9th, the Norwegian Nobel Committee finalised their nomination list, an event which also see’s members of the committee able to add their own nominee’s. Whilst last year the prize of $1.4m was given to US President Barack Obama, if the internet does manage to get the prize it is uncertain who will receive the financial reward. Meanwhile Mr Lundestad revealed “The announcement of this year’s laureate will be made on the 8 October. The prize amount is very likely be the same as in recent years.”
