Journalists Mohammed Zubair, Pratik Sinha among contenders for 2022 Nobel Peace Prize

Two Indian journalists – Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair– are among many world leaders who have made the cut to be the favourites to win the prestigious Nobel peace prize, according to Reuters. The Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the winner of the award on Friday.

Sinha and Zubair have been nominated for “battling misinformation”, methodologically debunking rumors and fake news circulating on social media, and calling out hate speech through their fact-checking website.

According to the report, the fact-checker duo became the contenders to win the coveted prize based on nominations that were made public via Norwegian lawmakers, predictions from bookmakers, and picks from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

The two journalists who co-founded fact-checking website AltNews have been debunking rumours and fake news across social media platforms being propagated by the BJP’s ‘hyper active’ IT cell. Battling misinformation spread by the saffron party and its ilk has emerged as a major challenge for opposition politicians, scholars and vast sections of minorities, mainly Muslims.

According to a survey conducted by the Reuters, the list of contenders made by the Norwegian lawmakers also feature the names of Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, broadcaster David Attenborough, climate activist Greta Thunberg, Pope Francis, Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe, and Myanmar’s National Unity government.

The Nobel Committee does not announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates. “Neither the names of nominators nor of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize may be divulged until the start of the year marking the 50th anniversary of the awarding of a particular prize,” reads the Nobel Committee’s rules on nominations for the peace prize.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, while calling for Zubair’s release, said his arrest was “another low for press freedom in India, where the government has created a hostile and unsafe environment for members of the press reporting on sectarian issues.”

Significance of Zubair’s nomination

Mohammed Zubair, who was arrested in June this year for a 2018 tweet, showed the status of India’s press freedom. As per a Delhi Police First Information Report (FIR) the tweet “highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feelings of hatred.” The Delhi Police charged him for inciting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and deliberate acts to outrage religious sentiments. His arrest was condemned by journalists around the world. Zubair was granted bail nearly a month later, on July 20 by the Supreme Court.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM