The Prize of Better Societies

You may be aware that the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to two people, Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace".

You may also be aware that the Nobel Prizes are regarded as prestigious, possibly as a consequence of the monetary prizes, the medals, the associated ceremonies, and possibly even the persons involved in selecting the winners.

The awards may also be regarded as prestigious as a consequence of the media coverage associated with the announcement of winners, some of which may be regarded as sensationalist.

The Nobel Peace Prize has often been associated with controversy, particularly regarding the selection of winners, as has the Nobel Prize for Literature.

There have also been several other controversies associated with Nobel Prizes, including the activities of Alfred Nobel himself and his commercial, military and environmental legacy.

How do you question assumptions about violence, and about peace?

What do you know about peace, and its opposite? 

What do you know about disarmament, and its opposite?

There are many abuses of power to address, in various parts of the world, regardless of whether those abuses occur in private or in public.

Corruption takes many forms.

Violence takes many forms.

Injustice takes many forms.

Propaganda takes many forms.

What do you know about Ludvig Nobel? 

How do you distinguish between discoveries, inventions, opportunities and unjustly exploitative practices?

How does your work help to improve democracy?

How are you defending the freedom to tell the truth?

How do you safeguard freedom of expression?

How do you attempt to improve democratic practices in other ways?

How do you contribute to enlightened public discourse?

How do you tell the difference between an objective reporter, a respectable political opponent and a belligerent enemy?

What do you know about Robert Nobel?

What do you know about objective reporting as an expression of enlightened moderation?

How do you critique the uses and abuses of political power, and all other forms of power?

How do you ascertain facts, particularly those alleged to be associated with cruelty?

How do you attempt to maintain integrity, and how consistently do you do so across all your activities, in public and in private?

How do you attempt to ascertain the truth about any society, and any government?

How do you identify relevance?

How do you identify risks?

What do you know about Emil Nobel?

How do you define stability, security and safety in relation to any society?

How do you hold abusers of power to account?

How are you attempting to counteract authoritarianism?

How do you address the dangers of misinformation, and attempt to hold its perpetrators to account?

How do you reinterpret and rewrite histories, including very recent histories, when corrupt politicians and their minions prefer their own versions of events?

How do you contribute to the free and fair provision of information?

What do you know about Immanuel Nobel and his contribution to the development of naval mines?

How do you convey information to the public about politics, and why do you take that approach?

How do you convey information to the public about human rights and threats to those rights?

How do you examine social issues and convey information to the public about those issues?

What do you know about Karolina Andriette Nobel? 

What do you know about quality standards of research, whether in the conduct of journalism, science or the humanities?

How do you attempt to report upon history as it is occurring?

Who is attempting to shape public opinion in a dangerous direction, in a particular part of the world, or even all over the world, and why?

How do you attempt to prevent yourself from being deceived?

How much courage is required of anyone telling the truth about politics in the area where you live?

What do you know about the Crimean War and the associated Siege of Sevastopol?

What do you know about land mines and steam engines and gun carriages?

How do you attempt to protect the lives of truth tellers?

What do you know about murdered journalists and murdered activists and murdered bystanders?

What do you know about corrupt lawyers and corrupt accountants and corrupt officials, including corrupt police?

What is freedom of the press, in your view?

How compatible are your beliefs about freedom of the press with various other rights, including the right to privacy?

How can investigative journalism address corruption, and help to prevent it?

How do you investigate and report upon ironies?

What do you know about public interest journalism, and the public interest more generally?

What do you know about the Branobel oil company, established by Ludvig and Robert Nobel, and its role in developing the Russian oil industry?

What do you know about the development of plywood by their father? 

What do you know about later generations of the Nobel family, including Emanuel Nobel, the second president of Branobel?

What do you know about business ethics, and from which point of view?

What do you know about the ethics of quality journalism?

If you are not yet a patron of quality journalism, why not?

Perhaps you have not yet located it in your local vicinity.

Perhaps the news you peruse, even if addressing important societal issues, is not presented in a way you regard as acceptable.

What do you know about Villa Petrolea in Baku, Azerbaijan?

How does your understanding of history shape your views about the present?

How does your experience of academia shape your views regarding the Nobel Prizes?

If you regard yourself as a political philanthropist, how do you inform your practice?

If you regard yourself as a political journalists, what does that actually mean in practice, particularly in relation to the public interest?

What do you know about the will of Alfred Nobel?

What do you know about the public relations aspects of the purported philanthropy, charitable giving and wills of rich people? 

What, and who, is currently in your will, and why? 

What do you know about Ragnar Sohlman?

 Whose lead do you follow, and why?

However you define yourself at present, how much do you value democracy, and how do you measure and express that value?

How do you define authority, power, the mass media, social media, fake news, harassment, psychological manipulation, state terror and political corruption?

What do you know about the Nobel Foundation and the Nobel Charitable Trust?

What do you know about Nobel Prizes as forms of patronage?

What do you know about philanthropy conveyed as patronage?

What do you know as patronage conveyed as philanthropy?

What do you know about Bertha von Suttner and other peace activists?

Who follows your lead as a practitioner of enlightened patronage, and who does not, and why?

Perhaps you prefer to provide patronage towards various ways of conveying the truth. 

What do you know about Nobel laureates and laureates more generally?

What do you know about various prizes and awards as forms of patronage?

What do you know about various prestigious prizes, including the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the Civil Courage Prize and the Right Livelihood Award?

How do you attempt to communicate freedom of expression and explain the differences between it and abusiveness?

What is your vision of better local and global governance, and how realistic is your point of view?

How do you contribute to well-informed kindness within and between governments, societies, organisations and cultural groups, and where is your proof?

How do you usually interpret the meaning of treasure, and from whose point of view?

What, in fact, is the prize for better societies?

What, if anything, do you have in common with Maria Ressa?

What do you know about Rappler and the work associated with it?

What do you know about the cruelty associated with Rodrigo Duterte, and how do you know it?

What, if anything, do you have in common with Dmitry Muratov?

What do you know about Novaya Gazeta and the work associated with it?

What do you know about the cruelty associated with Vladimir Putin, and how do you know it?

How are you contributing to lasting peace in the world, whether from the Philippines or Russia or anywhere else?

Perhaps you do not believe you have the freedom, at present, to answer the questions here in a public way, or even in private.

If you believe you have the freedom to answer questions honestly, without self-censorship, and without fear, how do you know you adequately treasure that freedom?

What do you know about the world's wealthiest charitable charitable foundations, the sources of their initial financial endowments, their legal structures, and the reasons for their current wealth?

How do you assess the wealth of organisations, including its sources and how it is invested?

How do you assess the wealth of powerful individuals and their families?

One of the problems faced by quality investigators of abuses of power is that possessing a high public profile is likely to be a liability.  Receiving awards and prizes may therefore be a danger. 

Maintaining anonymity and conducting research unobtrusively is likely to be be necessary in many situations worth investigating in the public interest.

If you are seeking help towards providing enlightened patronage of public interest journalism, possibly through your political philanthropy, where do you intend to look for that help, and why?

Perhaps you currently associate help with the provision of money rather than the provision of moral support and other assistance, particularly if you do not have much money, or much time, or much knowledge of investigative journalism as a practice and public interest journalism as a product.

How do enlightened moderators help you to ascertain the truth about yourself and your actions?

And how do enlightened moderators help you to express appropriate initiative?

Public interest journalism is an act of enlightened moderation.

If you believe you already have a well-informed approach to journalistic patronage, where is your evidence?

How consistently do you convey enlightened benevolence through appropriately humane principles, policies and practices?

There will always be many important questions to ask and answer, particularly about politics.

How are you contributing to the civility and integrity of enlightened patronage?

How do you assess political pleasantness if not in terms of counteracting authoritarianism and improving democracy?

How do you, in fact, contribute to public interest journalism?