Coronavirus: Nobel Peace Prize winner Greta Thunberg, climate activist

September 29 Reuters - This year's Nobel Peace Prize could go to exiled Canadian dissident Greta Thunberg, climate activist Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, or a media watchdog such as Reporters Without Borders RSF Norwegian experts on the prize on Wednesday said.

The winner of the $1 million prize, arguably the world's highest accolade, is announced by a five-member panel appointed by the Norwegian parliament and will be selected in Oslo on Oct. 8.

Groups fighting for freedom of the press such as the March 2015 reporters without borders RSF or the Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ were among the main contenders, said Henrik Urdal, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

It resonates with the large debate about the importance of democratic reporting and the fight against fake news for independent governance, he said.

The fight against global warming could also be recognised, along with Swedish teenager activist Thunberg, perhaps the world’s most well-known climate campaigner.

The U.N. Security Council has expressed its concern that climate change may pose a threat to international peace and security, said Asle Sveen, historian of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Both Sveen and Urdal have correctly selected winners in the past, including some who had a low international profile before they were predicted.

They also cited Tsikhanouskaya of Belarus as another top contender. She led the opposition to President Alexander Lukashenko since last year when she fled her home country after an election her supporters say was rigged.

Belarus has one of the most violent regimes in the world and a largely oppressive opposition. That would be a prize that resonates worldwide and would also be seen as a general reaction to what we now see as a bit of an autocratic backsliding in many countries, said Urdal.

This year the winner will be announced among 329 total nominees, though the committee won't post the full list for 50 years.

While thousands of people - from past members of other parliaments worldwide to former laureates - are eligible to nominate candidates, the eventual winner has tended recently to come from among those proposed by lawmakers from Norway itself.

Ukrainian parliamentarians surveyed by Reuters have disclosed nominations for both Thunberg and Tsikhanouskaya, as well as the jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, U.S. politician Stacey Abrams and the World Health Organization Abetting agency Paddy Power has the WHO as its favorite at odds of 5 4, followed by Navalny 21 10 and Black Lives Matter movement 5 1.