Snorre Valen, a member of the Norwegian parliament, has nominated WikiLeaks for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
In motivating his nomination, Mr Valen writes:
... many seek to redraw the map of information freedom with the emergence of institutions like Wikileaks. Political powers and institutions that ordinarily protect freedom of speech suddenly warn against the danger, the threat to security, yes even the “terrorism” that Wikileaks represent. In doing so, they fail in upholding democratic values and human rights. In fact, they contribute to the opposite. It is not, and should never be, the privilege of politicians to regulate which crimes the public should never be told about, and through which media those crimes become known.
Liu Xiabao was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom of speech in China. Likewise: Wikileaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture – some times even conducted by allies of Norway. And most recently: By disclosing the economic arrangements by the presidential family in Tunisia, Wikileaks have made a small contribution to bringing down a 24-year-lasting dictatorship.
The Peace Prize winner will be announced in October. Unlike the other Nobel prizes, the Peace Prize is administered in Norway rather than in Sweden and is presented in a ceremony in Oslo each December in the presence of the king of Norway.
See also The Swedish Wire and The Register.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer
Well, it's true that there
Well, it's true that there are always lots of nominations. Still, we thought it was a notable honour, especially since MP Valen's statement itself is such an important one to make in times like these and at this moment.
snorrevalen.no is swamped by
snorrevalen.no is swamped by traffic, try the google's text-only cache instead.
The Nobel Peace Prize is a
The Nobel Peace Prize is a dubious honor, if you consider its other recipients (from Al Gore backwards). I am not sure if Julian Asange should be flattered or insulted by the nomination.