Posts misquote Nobel Committee chair's remarks on Peace Prize outcome
- Published on October 17, 2025 at 05:13
- Updated on October 17, 2025 at 09:17
- 2 min read
- By Anne CHAN, AFP Hong Kong
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US President Donald Trump repeatedly insisted he "deserves" the Nobel Peace Prize in the months leading up to the October announcement. After the 2025 prize was awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Chinese-language social media posts shared a video of the committee chairman's press conference to misleadingly suggest he attributed Trump's loss to a lack of "courage and integrity". But a review of the full remarks found that the chairman had been misquoted, and he did not give a direct answer why the US president was not chosen for the prize.
"When asked why President Trump was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee chair replied: 'We only give this award to people with courage and integrity'," reads an X post in traditional Chinese shared on October 11, 2025.
The video in the post shows Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes responding to a reporter's question about Trump's hopes of winning the Peace Prize (archived link).
Since Trump's return to the White House for his second term in January, he has repeatedly insisted that he "deserves" the prize for his role in resolving numerous conflicts -- a claim experts say is broadly exaggerated (archived link).
The winner announced on October 10 was Machado, who dedicated the award to the Venezuelan people and Trump on X (archived here and here).
Similar X and Facebook posts in Chinese and English have also shared the claim, but actually misquoted Frydnes.
A keyword search on Google led to a live YouTube video published by AFP showing Frydnes' press conference (archived link).
The video, titled "LIVE: Nobel Peace Prize is announced | AFP", captured the committee chair revealing the Peace Prize laureate at a press briefing in Oslo, Norway, on October 10, 2025.
At the 32:13 timestamp, a reporter asked Frydnes about Trump's bid for the award: "How has this campaign-like activity by the president and his supporters domestically and internationally affected the deliberations and the thinking in the committee?"
In response, Frydnes said the committee has long made decisions regardless of campaigns and media attention.
"We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace. This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and will of Alfred Nobel," he said.
Other fact-checking organisations MyGoPen and Lead Stories have previously debunked the same claim (archived here and here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Nobel Peace Prize.
Updates first paragraph to remove extraneous wordsOctober 17, 2025 Updates first paragraph to remove extraneous words
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