01
Anyone nominates
Send us a name and two sentences on what they revealed and what it cost them. Nominations stay open all month, from every country, in any language.
Photos · Thanh Ly, Dieter K, Bahaa Mourad, Elissa Garcia / Unsplash
Voting open now · this month
Every month, the world chooses one person who told the truth.
Not a jury. Not a committee. You. Nominate anyone, from any country on earth, who stood up for the truth and paid for it — a whistleblower, a reporter, a doctor, a witness, a neighbour with a phone. The person with the most votes is named Truth Icon of the month, receives a printed award by post, and joins the shortlist for the Pnyx Aletheia annual prize.
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until voting closes for this month
Month
Truth Icon
195
Countries eligible
1
Vote per person, per month
12
Icons elected each year
0
Cost to take part
How it works
Four steps, one month, no gatekeepers
02
We check safety
Before a name goes on the ballot we verify the facts and, wherever we can reach them, ask the person's consent. Anyone who says no is removed instantly.
03
The world votes
One person, one vote, free, until the last day of the month. The running result stays visible so you can see the field move.
04
We send the award
The winner receives a printed, engraved award and a letter of congratulation — delivered anywhere in the world, or to a lawyer or friend if that is safer.
On the ballot right now
This month's nominees
Six names are in the running. Read them, choose one, and add your voice. The result is published on the first working day of next month.
Site owner:
these six cards are placeholders showing the layout. Replace them in
tools/pages/index.frag.html and vote.html with this month's real nominees — never publish a real person's name without following the consent rule on the Rules page.
1Africa01
Public health inspector
Nominee one
Refused to sign off contaminated water certificates for a mining concession, published the laboratory results, and was dismissed and prosecuted for breach of confidentiality.
votes32%
Vote for this nominee
2Europe02
Bank compliance officer
Nominee two
Handed regulators evidence of a sanctions-evasion pipeline after two years of being told internally to drop it. Now unemployable in the sector and facing a civil claim.
votes24%
Vote for this nominee
3Asia03
Local newspaper editor
Nominee three
Kept publishing the names of officials implicated in land seizures after her office was raided twice and her printer was threatened into refusing her business.
votes18%
Vote for this nominee
4Americas04
Factory safety engineer
Nominee four
Warned for eleven months that a structure would fail, was ignored, went to the press the week before it did, and lost his licence for it.
votes12%
Vote for this nominee
5MENA05
Court interpreter
Nominee five
Testified that confessions she had been asked to translate had been extracted under duress, and left the country the same week with her family.
votes9%
Vote for this nominee
6Global06
Warehouse worker
Nominee six
Filmed what was happening to the night shift and posted it under his own name, because doing it anonymously would have let the company deny it.
votes5%
Vote for this nominee
What the winner receives
A printed award, and the world's attention
Every elected Truth Icon receives a printed and engraved award, a signed letter of congratulation, and a public citation published permanently in the Hall of Honour. There is no fee, no ceremony to travel to, and nothing asked in return.
We will send it anywhere on earth — to a home, a lawyer's office, a newsroom, an organisation, or a trusted friend. If naming the recipient publicly would put them in danger, we publish the citation and withhold the name, or withdraw the nomination entirely. Their safety outranks our story, always.
Every icon elected during the year joins the shortlist for the Pnyx Aletheia annual prize — the field's highest honour, to be awarded once donor backing is in place.
Photo · Matias Luge / UnsplashTruth Icon of the Month
[ Name of the elected ]
“Elected by the public of the world in recognition of a truth told at great personal cost, and of the courage it took to tell it.”
Month Year · TruthIcons.com
Why a vote, and not a jury
Because juries can be leaned on. Millions of people cannot.
Attention is protection
Prosecutors, employers and courts behave differently towards someone the world is watching. Recognition is not decoration — for an isolated person it is often the only shield available.
No continent left out
Most honours for truthtelling go to people in a handful of rich countries with strong media. Ours is open to all 195, and the ballot is deliberately built to surface names you have never heard.
Nobody can buy it
There is no entry fee, no sponsor category, no donor with a vote. An award that could be bought would be worth nothing to the person who receives it.
Memory is the point
Reprisals succeed through forgetting. Every citation stays published permanently, so that in five years a search for their name still returns what they did, not what was done to them.
Where this leads
Pnyx Aletheia — the first worldwide prize for truth tellers, in the Nobel tradition
There is a Nobel Prize for peace, for literature, for medicine. There has never been one for the people who tell the truth and lose everything for it. Pnyx Aletheia is being built to be exactly that: a single annual prize of real standing, awarded to one person for the greatest service done to the truth that year.
The Pnyx faces the Acropolis across Athens: the hill where citizens of the first democracy spoke freely.
Its shortlist is not drawn up by a committee. It is the twelve Truth Icons the public elects here, month by month, from every continent. Every vote you cast on this site helps decide who is considered.
On this day in the gallery
The anniversary nearest to today, drawn from the exact birth and death dates recorded in our rooms. Approximate dates are never used.
10 October
1941 — Ken Saro-Wiwa was born in Bori, Nigeria.
85 years ago · 3 days ago
Coming next
- 10 November1995 — Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight co-defendants were hanged in Port Harcourt.
- 8 January1642 — Galileo Galilei died at Arcetri, near Florence, still under house arrest.
Ce jour-là dans la galerie
L’anniversaire le plus proche d’aujourd’hui, tiré des dates exactes de naissance et de mort consignées dans nos salles. Aucune date approximative n’est retenue.
10 octobre
1941 — Ken Saro-Wiwa naquit à Bori, au Nigeria.
il y a 85 ans · il y a 3 jours
Entrer dans la salle IX: Ken Saro-Wiwa
Prochainement
- 10 novembre1995 — Ken Saro-Wiwa et huit coaccusés furent pendus à Port Harcourt.
- 8 janvier1642 — Galilée mourut à Arcetri, près de Florence, toujours assigné à résidence.
Tal día como hoy en la galería
El aniversario más cercano a hoy, tomado de las fechas exactas de nacimiento y muerte que recogen nuestras salas. Nunca se usan fechas aproximadas.
10 de octubre
1941 — Ken Saro-Wiwa nació en Bori (Nigeria).
hace 85 años · hace 3 días
Entrar en la sala IX: Ken Saro-Wiwa
Próximamente
- 10 de noviembre1995 — Ken Saro-Wiwa y ocho coacusados fueron ahorcados en Port Harcourt.
- 8 de enero1642 — Galileo Galilei murió en Arcetri, cerca de Florencia, todavía bajo arresto domiciliario.
Explore the gallery
More to see on Truth Icons
The Founding Exhibition
Nine rooms for nine truth tellers, from Socrates to Ken Saro-Wiwa, with a clickable floor plan, sources and “Cite this room”.
Icons of the Month
The twelve frames of the year’s election and how each monthly Icon joins the shortlist for the annual prize.
Timeline
Twenty-four centuries of people who told the truth and paid for it, in order.
Learn — for teachers
Printable lesson pages and discussion questions for classrooms and study groups.
Partners
How newsrooms, schools and civil-society organisations can carry the vote to their audiences.
Privacy & terms
What we collect, why, and your rights. No cookies, no trackers.
Photo · Brett Wharton / Unsplash
Voting closes at the end of the month
Somebody told the truth this year and paid for it. Say their name.
It takes thirty seconds, it costs nothing, and for the person on the other end it is the difference between being alone and being witnessed.