Logo

When the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the 2013 Nobel Peace prize Friday morning, leaders of the watchdog group were nowhere to be found.

“@OPCW Please contact us @Nobelprize_org we are trying to get through to your office,” Nobel  Prize organizers tweeted from Norway at 5:44 am.

Minutes later, the Nobel committee went ahead with its announcement and webcast of the winner – and then went back to trying notify OPCW.

The live webcast is now over. We are still trying to reach @OPCW

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 11, 2013

The two groups clearly don’t follow each other on Twitter. While the Nobel folks were reaching out,  the Hague, Netherlands-based OPCW – which is in the same time zone as the Nobel committee – was boasting of the win.

“OPCW wins the #NobelPeacePrize!” it tweeted at 5:01 am.

The mixed signals prompted Foreign Policy’s David Kenner to tweet: “@Nobelprize.org is tweeting it can’t reach OPCW; @OPCW is tweeting it won the Nobel Prize. Guys, follow each other for a DM?”

Later Friday, OPCW confirmed it had talked to the Nobel committee, tweeting: “Thank you for all the messages. We can confirm that we have been in touch with @Nobelprize_org – thanks for the concern!”

OPCW, formed in 1997, was awarded the prestigious $1.2 million prize for its work enforcing the international Chemical Weapons Convention. Its members are currently in Syria for the disarming of President Bashar Assad’s arsenal.

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy