FileSharing Talk - WikiLeaks Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

You could have almost predicted it: WikiLeaks has been nominated to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Snorre Valen, a member of Norway's parliament, said that the website deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because of its contribution to democracy and freedom of speech. Each year, nominees for the prestigious prize are chosen by invitation of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

"Liu Xiabao was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom of speech in China," Valen's blog post reads. "Likewise, WikiLeaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture."

The nomination of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks could be as controversial as WikiLeaks itself. While there was quite a bit of international support for Assange prior to the release and at the very beginning of the release of secret government cables, we noticed that some of the publications that received access to the cables, including the New York Times and especially Germany's Der Spiegel have somewhat turned against Assange with the release of books that describe the background of the release and Assange as a person.

Der Spiegel describes Julian Assange as a generally difficult person to deal with, someone who threatened the publications with lawyers. There is plenty of dirty laundry that discusses the problems and battles of WikiLeaks and paint an organization that is extremely secretive, accessed its initial materials with the help of a Chinese hack.