WikiLeaks' Assange gets Australian peace prize

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/10/us-australia-britain-assange-idUSTRE7495FP20110510

by zephyrfalcon • 15 years ago

203 73 15 years ago

reuters.com

HockeyBiasDotCo• 15 years ago

Oh brother...

corin_4• 15 years ago

Seems incredibly likely that he'll take the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize as well.

rimantas• 15 years ago

Genuinely curious: how did he improve the world? At least I heard more news about his Swedish affair than about anything significant disclosed by wikileaks (nicknames of the politicians aside).

th0ma5• 15 years ago

one can, sort of, trace the "arab spring" back to some of the diplomatic correspondence they leaked... this lead to the initial protests in tunisia

corin_4• 15 years ago

There are obviously people whose views range from "he's a terrorist" to "he's the best man alive", and everything in between.

A quote from this article as one example of a possible justification:

"Assange himself claimed publication of the cables helped shape uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East and said WikiLeaks was on the side of justice."

If you are of the belief that nothing has so far made much of a difference, there is still an argument that by pushing for more openness from Governments he is helping move towards a better, and potentially more peaceful, future.

joshes• 15 years ago

Media coverage is not necessarily indicative of the effect on the world produced by a given individual or group. Especially for an individual who is hated by many people in high places, be it for good reason or otherwise. To comment that there was more in the mainstream media about Assange's Swedish affair than about the information disclosed in the leaks does not mean that the leaks did nothing.

ErrantX2• 15 years ago

God, I tell you what. That sodding Swedish affair caused more trouble on Wikipedia than the whole of Wikileaks so far (i.e. people desperate to gleefully discredit the guy at any cost). Painful to the extreme. Now, I am not his greatest fan, but it is a strange society where people seem more concerned with the reporting of serious allegations compared to the publishing of classified information.

Tangaroa• 15 years ago

He produced the appearance of having given the U.S.A. a black eye. Cold War geopolitics seems to be the chief criteria that "peace" and "human rights" groups go by these days, which is really weird since the Cold War was supposed to have ended twenty years ago. The award is also a way of getting Assange's treatment by the States back into the press so people don't forget about it.

paul9290• 15 years ago

The cables he received from Bradley Manning and then published have been noted to be the impetus to the democratic uprising throughout the Middle East (http://news.scotsman.com/world/Tunisia-Uprising-called-first...).

Over the next few years we will see if all these Middle Eastern countries become democratic and not under a heavy handed stifling regime/dictatorship. If most go democratic that is a win for all countries and ironically best for the U.S.

trevelyan• 15 years ago

You might find this interesting:

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/232

defroost• 15 years ago

> Genuinely curious: how did he improve the world? At least I heard more news about his Swedish affair than about anything significant disclosed by wikileaks (nicknames of the politicians aside).

Read the newspaper much? WikiLeaks and Assange have been responsible for breaking more MAJOR stories than all of the media outlets combined. First we had the Collateral Murder video which showed a Baghdad airstrike where Iraqi civilians including 2 Reuters journalists killed. Then the Afghan War Diary followed by the Iraqi War Logs. Huge amounts of documents. Then the "US diplomatic cables leaks" which contained more than a few important stories, maybe you heard about them? These we followed by the The Guantánamo Files which revealed that hundreds of innocent Afghan farmers were held for years there without being charged. (If you don't know what any of these things are, I'm sure you know how to find out more about them).

If none of the above is significant to you, I don't know what to say. Anyway, sorry to be snarky, but your comment is either uninformed or the mainstream media and the state have done an good job planting seeds of doubt in your mind about the importance of people like Assange in a free society or both.

rdtsc2• 15 years ago

It is expecting that if large power structures (governments, corporations, institutions) are afraid their dirty laundry will be exposed they will try to act more responsibly. Well, perhaps in reality they will just try harder to hide the dirty laundry, but that's for another discussion. Going with the original idea, if coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan feel that what they do day to day could end up on Wikileaks.org, perhaps they'll think twice about tolerating or engaging in abuse. Anyway, I think that's the logic.

Now you can of course ask "What did Obama do to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?". My answer would be "nothing" but many here will probably disagree with that. So to me it all just seems rather random who gets peace prizes and why: Is it a statement of encouragement, like a "preemptive" peace prize, in hopes more peace to come in the future? Or is it for specific past accomplishments, and then how does one measure that? What were Obama's accomplishments when he got his?

swaits• 15 years ago

Historically, I wouldn't say improving the world is actually required. I'd even say JA has done more to promote peace than many other recipients.

derrida3• 15 years ago

rimantas: That is not wikileaks fault, but the traditional medias. Did you know that Obama was waging war in Yemen? Wikileaks contains proof of this. Where is the media? Surely knowing about a secret war that we didn't know about before gives the world the capacity to act towards a more peaceful world.

bumbledraven• 15 years ago

http://sowhyiswikileaksagoodthingagain.com/

wnoise3• 15 years ago

I can see an argument that he deserves it, but that's a far cry from saying he'll get it.

Joakal• 15 years ago

A Norwegian parliamentarian has nominated Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, saying his publication of thousands of secret government documents has helped to promote human rights, democracy and freedom of speech.[0]

[0] http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wikileaks-julian-assange-nomi...

olalonde7• 15 years ago

And how did he promote democracy?

Didn't Americans democratically elect a government which estimated that keeping diplomatic cables secret was the right thing to do?

Didn't Assange publicly release those cables?

That being said, he certainly promoted freedom of speech.

derrida3• 15 years ago

That would be remarkable given that the Nobel prize is awarded by Sweden he is also facing extradition to Sweden.

cromulent3• 15 years ago

True, except that the peace prize laureate is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

keyle• 15 years ago

That's great, but how does that help the guy get out of the mess he's in?... I think he needs official help, not some prize which promotes as much the prize giver than the receiver.

jrockway2• 15 years ago

What mess is he in? Last I checked, he was appealing the extradition to Sweden for questioning about the "rape" allegations. Let's say he loses the appeal; he shows up in Sweden, answers some questions, and is done. The Swedish government has an amazingly weak case against him; so weak it's already been dropped once.

If he doesn't lose the appeal, then he'll stay in England a free man.

The US doesn't like him, but he didn't do anything illegal in the US, so that's not really a problem for him. I doubt he'll be dropping by, though.

pyre• 15 years ago

I think there is speculation that he'll get extradited from Sweden, though I don't know the specifics of why that is.

jarin• 15 years ago

Somehow I think he'll be alright, especially compared to Bradley Manning.

olalonde7• 15 years ago

Socrates is probably turning in his grave...

redthrowaway• 15 years ago

I'm not seeing the relation between Assange and Socrates.

olalonde7• 15 years ago

I was referring to the Crito dialogue[1].

Socrates said in a dialogue with Crito: "You must either persuade [your country] or obey its orders, and endure in silence whatever it instructs you to endure... leads you into was to be wounded or killed, you must obey."

Socrates probably would have referred to Assange as a villain, not as a hero, for bringing transparency through illegal means rather than persuasion. "Illegal means" might be a bit exaggerated here since he didn't commit the crimes himself but he certainly encouraged them.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crito

lukefabish• 15 years ago

Gloriously under-reported in Australian mainstream media. So far the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp.) is the only one carrying it on its front page.

WikiLeaks' Assange gets Australian peace prize

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