Brahimi
Is Not a Nobel
Laureate,
Nobel
Foundation
Tells ICP, Who
Corrects?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 19 --
Two days after
Lakhdar
Brahimi was
named Joint
Special
Representative
on Syria and a
wire
service called
him "a
Nobel Peace
Laureate,"
and a day
after Inner
City Press
twice
questioned
this
designation,
the Nobel
Foundation has
told Inner
City
Press that
Brahimi "has
not been
awarded a
Nobel Prize
and
should
therefore not
be referred to
as a Nobel
Laureate."
The
Nobel
Foundation's
public
releations
manager Annika
Pontikis also
said that,
until Inner
City Press'
question, no
one had asked
her
this question.
So
the initial
wire story
wasn't fact
checked -- in
fact, that
Brahimi
is not a Nobel
laureate is
clear from a simple
search of the
Nobel
web site
-- and those
who ran it did
not check
either.
The
"Brahimi as
Nobel Peace
laureate"
phrase
continued to proliferate,
from Reuters
to SABC,
Malta
Today, Euronews,
Ghana
Broadcasting
Corporation,
Eyewitness
News, Channel
4
Nor did any of
these respond
to inquiries,
nor apparently
run any
correction.
As
Inner City
Press has
previously
asked without
answer, how
are
these things
supposed to
work?
There is the
media, then
there is
the source or
subject.
Should
Brahimi,
personally
involved in
his
public
relations
machine, have
reached out to
correct the
inaccurate
description of
himself
receiving a
prize he never
received?
Inner City
Press before
and just after
Brahimi
took the job
wrote that it
would be a
form of "Nobel
Prize lottery"
for him - if
anything good
happens, he
might be in
line for the
Nobel Peace
Prize; if not,
expectations
are low.
Further
lowering
expectations,
Brahimi
did phone
interviews:
first with
French
state media
France 24,
telling them
that the UN
only cares
about
helping the
Syrian people.
On
August 18
Brahimi called
Reuters, which
then wrote
for yet
another
time that
Brahami is "a
Nobel
Peace laureate."
Finally, Inner
City Press
asked the
Nobel
Foundation
"whether
former UN
official (and
incoming Syria
envoy) Lakhdar
Brahimi was or
is a Nobel
Peace
laureate" and
"if others
have asked you
this." The
reply:
From:
Annika
Pontikis [at]
nobel.se
Date: Sun, Aug
19, 2012 at
1:26
PM
Subject: SV:
Is Lakhdar
Brahimi a
Nobel Peace
laureate?
To: Matthew R.
Lee [at]
InnerCityPress.com
Dear
Matthew Lee,
As
you probably
know the
United
Nations, as an
organization,
has been
awarded the
Nobel Prize.
This, however,
does not mean
that persons
affiliated to
the UN can
call
themselves
Nobel
Laureates.
The
person
referred to
below has not
been awarded a
Nobel Prize
and
should
therefore not
be referred to
as a Nobel
Laureate.
I
have not
received this
question from
others.
Kind
regards,
Annika
Pontikis
As Inner City
Press wrote
before this
answer, a
"Nobel was
given in 1988
to UN
Peacekeeping,
but if that
makes Brahimi
a Nobel
laureate many
others can
claim that
same prize.
So why the
designation? We'll
wait and
see." And now
we see. What
next? Watch
this site.