Editing Nobel Prize (section)

=== Controversial recipients ===
[[File:Henry A. Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, 1973-1977.jpg|thumb|upright|When it was announced that [[Henry Kissinger]] was to be awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in [[1973 Nobel Peace Prize|1973]], two of the Norwegian Nobel Committee members resigned in protest.]]
Among other criticisms, the Nobel Committees have been accused of having a political agenda, and of omitting more deserving candidates. They have also been accused of [[Eurocentrism]], especially for the Literature Prize.<ref name="Abramsxiv">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. xiv.</ref><ref name="Feldman65">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 65.</ref><ref name="Sarasota">{{Cite news |last=Tuohy |first=William |date=20 September 1981 |title=Literature Award Hardest for Nobel Prize Panel |page=58 |work=[[Sarasota Herald Tribune]] |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |access-date=9 March 2010 |archive-date=15 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415223203/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19810920&id=FZ0cAAAAIBAJ&pg=6245,2424225 |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Peace Prize

Among the most criticised Nobel Peace Prizes was the one awarded to [[Henry Kissinger]] and [[Lê Đức Thọ]]. This led to the resignation of two Norwegian Nobel Committee members.<ref name="topten">{{Cite news |last=de Sousa |first=Ana Naomi |date=9 October 2009 |title=Top ten Nobel Prize rows |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6868007.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100234/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kissinger and Thọ were awarded the prize for negotiating a ceasefire between [[North Vietnam]] and the United States in January 1973 during the [[Vietnam War]]. However, when the award was announced, both sides were still engaging in hostilities.<ref name="Abrams219">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 219.</ref> Critics sympathetic to the North announced that Kissinger was not a peace-maker but the opposite, responsible for widening the war. Those hostile to the North and what they considered its deceptive practices during negotiations were deprived of a chance to criticise Lê Đức Thọ, as he declined the award.<ref name="Feldman315">[[#Feldman|Feldman]], p. 315</ref><ref name="Abrams315">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], p. 315.</ref> The satirist and musician [[Tom Lehrer]] has remarked that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."<ref name="Lehrer">{{Cite news |last=Purdom |first=Todd |title=When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |url-status=live |access-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140531212217/http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/jul/31/artsfeatures1 |archive-date=31 May 2014}}</ref>

[[Yasser Arafat]], [[Shimon Peres]], and [[Yitzhak Rabin]] received the Peace Prize in 1994 for their efforts in making peace between Israel and Palestine.<ref name="Feldman315" /><ref name="Levinovitz183">[[Nobel Prize#Levinovitz69|Levinovitz]], p. 183.</ref> Immediately after the award was announced, one of the five Norwegian Nobel Committee members denounced Arafat as a terrorist and resigned.<ref name="Feldman15-16">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 15–16.</ref> Additional misgivings about Arafat were widely expressed in various newspapers.<ref name="Abrams302-306">[[Nobel Prize#Abrams|Abrams]], pp. 302–306.</ref>

Another controversial Peace Prize was that awarded to [[Barack Obama]] [[2009 Nobel Peace Prize|in 2009]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Erlanger |first1=Steven |last2=Stolberg |first2=Sheryl Gay |date=9 October 2009 |title=Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=5 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105204618/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nominations had closed only eleven days after Obama took office as [[President of the United States]], but the actual evaluation occurred over the next eight months.<ref name="philp">{{Cite news |last=Philp |first=Catherine |date=10 October 2009 |title=How the Nobel Peace Prize winner is decided |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6868833.ece |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924100235/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Obama himself stated that he did not feel deserving of the award, or worthy of the company in which it would place him.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 October 2009 |title=Obama is surprise winner of Nobel Peace Prize |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |access-date=9 October 2009 |archive-date=12 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012134156/https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5981JK20091009?sp=true |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=9 October 2009 |title=Remarks by the President on winning the Nobel Peace Prize |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Winning-the-Nobel-Peace-Prize/ |access-date=1 April 2010 |website=[[whitehouse.gov]] |via=[[NARA|National Archives]] }}</ref> Past Peace Prize laureates were divided, some saying that Obama deserved the award, and others saying he had not secured the achievements to yet merit such an accolade. Obama's award, along with the previous Peace Prizes for [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[Al Gore]], also prompted accusations of a [[Liberalism|liberal]] bias.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Naughton |first=Philippe |date=9 October 2009 |title=President Obama humbled: I do not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |access-date=6 January 2022 |archive-date=6 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106032627/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-obama-humbled-i-do-not-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize-f2c2vxwz7hj |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Aung San Suu Kyi]] was awarded the Peace Prize in 1993. However, in 2015, when she came into power in [[Myanmar]], she was criticized for being silent on human rights violation under her rule and especially over the [[Rohingya genocide]] and calls were made to strip her of her Nobel Peace Prize.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-11-03 |title=Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar democracy icon who fell from grace |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11685977 |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ellis-Petersen |first=Hannah |date=2018-11-23 |title=From peace icon to pariah: Aung San Suu Kyi's fall from grace |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/23/aung-san-suu-kyi-fall-from-grace-myanmar |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

;Literature Prize

The award of the 2004 Literature Prize to [[Elfriede Jelinek]] drew a protest from a member of the Swedish Academy, [[Knut Ahnlund]]. Ahnlund resigned, alleging that the selection of Jelinek had caused "irreparable damage to all progressive forces, it has also confused the general view of literature as an art". He alleged that Jelinek's works were "a mass of text shovelled together without artistic structure".<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Who deserves Nobel prize? Judges don't agree |work=[[Today (U.S. TV program)|Today]] |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=8 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508051921/https://www.today.com/popculture/who-deserves-nobel-prize-judges-don-t-agree-wbna9665122 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=11 October 2005 |title=Nobel judge steps down in protest |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331111632/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4329962.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2009 Literature Prize to [[Herta Müller]] also generated criticism. According to ''[[The Washington Post]]'', many US literary critics and professors were ignorant of her work.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Mary |date=9 October 2009 |title=Author's Nobel Stirs Shock-and-'Bah' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |access-date=1 April 2010 |archive-date=4 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104035508/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/08/AR2009100800965.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This made those critics feel the prizes were too Eurocentric.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=8 October 2009 |title=NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: Herta Muller |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |journal=The Huffington Post |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=10 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091010040101/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/nobel-prize-winner-herta_n_313577.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The 2019 Literature Prize to [[Peter Handke]] received heavy criticisms from various authors, such as [[Salman Rushdie]] and [[Hari Kunzru]], and was condemned by the governments of [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Kosovo]], and [[Turkey]], due to his history of [[Bosnian genocide denial]]ism and his support for [[Slobodan Milošević]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 October 2019 |title=Outrage in Bosnia, Kosovo over Peter Handke's Nobel prize win |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |publisher=Al Jazeera |archive-date=29 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829061001/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/outrage-bosnia-kosovo-peter-handke-nobel-prize-win-191010183645296.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cain |first=Sian |date=10 October 2019 |title='A troubling choice': authors criticise Peter Handke's controversial Nobel win |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |access-date=28 June 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615070941/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/troubling-choice-authors-criticise-peter-handke-controversial-nobel-win |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=7 December 2019 |title=Kosovo to boycott Nobel ceremony over Handke's literature prize |agency=Al Jazeera |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |access-date=28 June 2022 |archive-date=9 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909093959/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/kosovo-boycott-nobel-ceremony-handke-literature-prize-191207143607923.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

;Science prizes

In 1949, the neurologist [[António Egas Moniz]] received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the [[Lobotomy|prefrontal lobotomy]]. The previous year, [[Walter Jackson Freeman II|Walter Freeman]] had developed a [[Lobotomy#Transorbital lobotomy|version of the procedure]] which was faster and easier to carry out. Due in part to the publicity surrounding the original procedure, Freeman's procedure was prescribed without due consideration or regard for modern [[medical ethics]]. Endorsed by such influential publications as ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]'', leucotomy or "lobotomy" became so popular that about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States in the three years immediately following Moniz's receipt of the Prize.<ref name="Feldman286-289">[[Nobel Prize#Feldman|Feldman]], pp. 286–289.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Day |first=Elizabeth |date=12 January 2008 |title=He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain... |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |access-date=31 March 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020075415/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/jan/13/neuroscience.medicalscience |url-status=live }}</ref>