2009 Nobel Peace Prize the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize closed just 11 days after Obama took office. There were 205 nominations for the 2009 award, which included Chinese and Afghan civil rights activists and African politicians. Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba, Afghanistan's Sima Samar, Chinese dissident Hu Jia and Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai had been speculated to be favorites for the award. The five members of the Nobel Committee are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament to roughly reflect the party makeup of that body. The 2009 Committee comprised two members of the Norwegian Labor Party, one from the left-wing Socialist Left Party, one
2010 Nobel Peace Prize among the public in China, as more than 75 percent of respondents had no idea who the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was." The "Beijing Daily" published an editorial on the day of the award ceremony entitled "Why not give the peace prize to Julian Assange?". It suggested that Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, was not awarded the prize because he could not "become a tool for Western forces in attacking countries with different ideologies ... even if this tool is serving out a prison sentence for violating the law." Following the announcement on 8 October 2010, Xinhua relayed