On Thursday evening, the International Fact-Checking Network was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 by Trine Skei Grande, former Norwegian Minister of Education and of Culture and Gender Equality, reported Norwegian public broadcast NRK.
According to NRK's report, the recent storming of the United States Congress at Capitol Hill and the highlighting of the issue of misinformation by US President Joe Biden led Grande to believe that the nomination is relevant.
Grande also tweeted about the nomination, while quoting Biden from his inaugural speech as saying, "In war, truth is the first victim."
Also Read: Sensex Hits 50,000: How It Traveled Over 40 Years Since 1979
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) was founded in 2015 by Florida-based non-profit journalism school and research organisation Poynter Institute of Mass Studies, to set a strict code of ethics for fact-checking organisations, based on transparent and non-partisan reporting. IFCN provides certifications to fact-checking organisations after an audit, which is renewed every year based on continued compliance with the code of ethics.
Currently, IFCN brings together 79 different organisations from across the world, which includes BOOM, along with some prominent news organisations and agencies like Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters and The Washington Post.
While there are currently nine different IFCN signatories in India, BOOM and sibling website FactChecker were the first two signatories to be accredited in 2018.
IFCN further rose to prominence in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic by creating a #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, bringing together over 100 fact-checkers from over 70 countries, following the declaration of misinformation around the disease as an infodemic by the World Health Organisation.
Another prominent work by an IFCN signatory was a compilation of all the false claims made by former US President Donald Trump (a number that climbed up to 30,573) by the Washington Post.
Also Read: Arnab Goswami, Partho Dasgupta WhatsApp Chats: 7 Things To Know
Nobel Nomination Process
While the selection of eligible candidates and of the final winner is done by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a nomination can be made by anyone who meets the following criteria:
- Members of national assemblies and national governments (cabinet members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as current heads of states
- Members of The International Court of Justice in The Hague and The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague
- Members of l'Institut de Droit International
- Members of the international board of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
- University professors, professors emeriti and associate professors of history, social sciences, law, philosophy, theology, and religion; university rectors and university directors (or their equivalents); directors of peace research institutes and foreign policy institutes
- Persons who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Members of the main board of directors or its equivalent of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- Current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee (proposals by current members of the Committee to be submitted no later than at the first meeting of the Committee after 1 February)
- Former advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Committee
Last year, Trump made headlines after being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian far-right politician Christian Tybring-Gjedd. However, he lost the final award to World Food Programme.
Also Read: Mirzapur Show Portrays City Full Of Goons and Adulteress: Plea in SC
