Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Julian Assange awarded Australian peace prize

WikiLeaks founder receives the Sydney Peace Foundation's gold medal for 'championing people's right to know 

WikiLeaks' Australian founder Julian Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, has been given a peace award for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights".

Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's gold medal on Tuesday at the Frontline Club in London, only the fourth such award to be handed out in its 14-year history. The not-for-profit organisation is associated with the University of Sydney and supported by the City of Sydney.

Assange, who is fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, was praised for "challenging centuries-old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know". 

I'm sure this will really piss-off the American government. The shear audacity of awarding such prize to Julian Assange a man who exposed the United States willingness to support authoritarian rule even this is the same government that tortured prisoners, held people without trial and then will issue a Human Rights report critical of other nations for doing the same thing.

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