“It’s journalism, so everything’s unstable and you kind of roll with it,” said one staffer. “But there was no indication that this sort of thing was coming.”

This year, it is Raif Badawi -- jailed, publicly lashed, and fined for standing up to the Saudi monarchy -- who is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside his also-imprisoned lawyer and brother-in-law Waleed Abulkhair.

The Al Jazeera TV news organization that began in Qatar missed a great opportunity when it started Al Jazeera America (AJAM), using the cable channel it bought from ex-Vice President Al Gore's Current TV.