Indian Fact-Checker Duo Pratik Sinha, Mohammed Zubair Among Contenders For 2022 Nobel Peace Prize

According to a report by TIME, the duo has “methodically debunked rumours and fake news” and called out hate speech.

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Analiza Pathak

Published: October 5, 2022, 3:07 PM IST

Share

Share Article

• Facebook
• WhatsApp
• X
• Email
• Telegram
• Linkedin

https://www.india.com/news/india/indian-fact-checker-duo-pratik-sinha-mohammed-zubair-among-contenders-for-2022-nobel-peace-prize-5670247/ Copy

2022 Nobel Peace Prize: Fact-checkers Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, co-founders of AltNews, are reportedly among the contenders to win the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. According to a report by TIME, the duo has “methodically debunked rumours and fake news” and called out hate speech. The report says that the fact-checker duo emerged as contenders to nab the peace prize based on the nominations that were revealed by Norwegian lawmakers, bookmakers’ predictions, and picks from the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

“Journalists Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, co-founders of Indian fact checking website AltNews, have relentlessly been battling misinformation in India, where the Hindu nationalist BJP party has been accused of frequently stoking discrimination against Muslims. Sinha and Zubair have methodologically debunked rumors and fake news circulating on social media and called out hate speech,” stated the TIME report.

This year in June, Zubair was arrested in connection with a tweet he made in 2018 that the Delhi Police’s First Information Report (FIR) says was ‘highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feelings of hatred’.

He was charged for his ‘deliberate acts to outrage religious sentiments’ and promoting enmity on religious grounds.

The fact-checker’s arrest sparked global outrage, prompting the American non-profit Committee To Protect Journalists to issue a statement saying, “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.” Zubair walked out of Tihar Jail a month later after being granted bail by the Supreme Court.

2022 Nobel Peace Prize

There are about 343 candidates – 251 are individuals and 92 are organizations – in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2022.

• Other names, according to TIME, that are favourites to win the Nobel for peace are Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the World Health Organization
• Russia’s jailed opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny
• Swedish climate activist Greta Thunburg
• Tuvalu’s foreign minister Simon Kofe
• Broadcaster and biologist David Attenborough
• Myanmar National Unity Government.
• Uyghur activist Ilham Tohti
• Hong Kong pro-democracy advocate Nathan Law Kwun-chung
• The Kyiv Independent
• The European Convention on Human Rights
• The Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS)

The winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced at 11 am local time on 7 October in Oslo.