Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018 ? You will have to wait a lot further to know the answer of this question as the Swedish Academy, the cultural institution responsible for awarding the prize got caught in a sex scandal.The formal announcement came Friday morning after ten active members of the Institution met on Thursday. This years’ winner will be announced on 2019.
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Jean-Claude Arnault, who was an Academy member is facing a number of sexual allegations. He was reported for sexual assault and harassment, by Swedish Newspaper Dagens Nyheter last year. The Academy was quick to act and severed all connections with Arnault. But this is not the first time Arnault finds himself in the middle of controversies.Ten years ago he was accused of touching Sweden’s crown prince inappropriately. A team of lawyers have discovered that in 1996 the Academy had received a letter alleging the occurrence of sexual assault at Arnault’s cultural forum.
Anders Olsson, the Academy’s permanent secretary said in a statement that they found it necessary to commit time to recovering public confidence in the academy before the next laureate can be announced. He added that the Academy is acting out of respect for all the previous winners and for all who will be a Nobel Laureate in the future. The decision will not hamper other Nobel prizes though.
The Nobel Committee has understood that the situation has worsened the public image of the committee and welcomed the move to postpone the award. The last time the prize was postponed was in 1943 because of world war 2.
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