Arguing that
"the first victim of a war is the truth",
a Norwegian MP announced Thursday that she had nominated "fact-checkers", the fact-checkers, for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"
We live in a time when fighting lies is so important that Joe Biden mentioned it in his
inaugural
speech,"
said Trine Skei Grande, former president of the Liberal party, currently in power in Norway in a coalition.
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“This year, I nominated fact-checkers for the Nobel Peace Prize. They need our support, ”
she added on Twitter.
In practice, the elected representative, who was notably Minister of Culture and then of Education between 2018 and 2020, put forward the candidacy of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a network of dozens of media and organizations - including AFP - active in verifying the facts.
In an email to the global fact-checker community, IFCN Director Baybars Örsek expressed the
"tremendous sense of humility and pride"
at the helm of the organization after the announces that his candidacy was advanced.
“If we are aware that this is a very preliminary step in an unequaled journey, it is a great testimony to the work of our movement,”
he wrote.
The Nobel Institute accepts all valid applications submitted by the January 31 deadline, without acknowledging any recognition on its part.
Each year, hundreds of names are nominated for the prestigious distinction.
Among the other known candidacies for 2021 is ... the former US President Donald Trump who for his part popularized the expression "fake news".
Tens of thousands of people (parliamentarians and ministers from all countries, former laureates, some university professors, etc.) are entitled to submit a candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Joe Biden urged his compatriots on Wednesday to reject the manipulation of facts, in a reference to his predecessor Donald Trump, who for weeks denied the result of the presidential election.
"Each of us has the duty and the responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and particularly as leaders, (...) to defend the truth and to fight the lies",
underlined the new president American.
As a benchmark in the fight against infox, the IFCN has, according to its website, 79 certified signatories around the world.
In addition to the fact-checking service of Agence France-Presse, there is that of the Washington Post, Le Monde ("Les Décodeurs"), Reuters and Africa Check.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in early October.
Last year, he crowned the World Food Program (WFP).