WikiLeaks, Internet Nominees For Nobel Peace Prize 202
Hugh Pickens writes writes "WikiLeaks and the Internet are among a record 241 nominations for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize that also includes Afghan rights advocate Sima Samar, the European Union, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, Russian rights group Memorial and its founder Svetlana Gannushkina. 'Looking at the long term, we can say interest in the prize is strong and growing along with the number of candidates,' says Geir Lundestad, a non-voting member of the Nobel panel. WikiLeaks grabbed the world's attention and angered a number of governments by publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, while pundits say the Internet or social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which have been used to help organize dissent in countries with oppressive governments, could be rewarded. Under the leadership of former Prime Minister Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel panel has not shied away from bold decisions — first picking Barack Obama just months after he became US president, and last year awarding the prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo."
The nomination of Wikileaks (Score:5, Interesting)
will leave the United States government in an interesting quandry if it proceeds to success.
The US was vociferous in supporting the award of the Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, in the face of the Chinese government's strident opposition. What will it do when an organization it considers "treasonous" is a Nobel candidate?
Just for payback... I mean, symmetry... China should publicly back Wikileaks' bid.
The Internet? (Score:5, Interesting)
Tunisian General ? (Score:5, Interesting)
- denied a direct order to shoot on civilians,
- put Ben Ali on a place with a kick in his ass,
- protected the people from armed militia ?
Assange, definitely Assange, and maybe Manning (Score:1, Interesting)
They should give it to WikiLeaks with Julian Assange accepting for WikiLeaks, meaning an empty chair if he's still in prison. And jointly they could award the anonymous source(s) of their three big classified U.S. leaks, an empty chair since Brian Manning rots in prison.
The Nobel Peace Prize should ideally have some sort of activist quality, making dissident unkillable, pissing off some government, etc. The U.S. and Sweden deserve the embarrassment of the world looking at two empty chairs representing their hypocrisy. Epic lulz!
That said, if they choose the internet, they should still ask that Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum (Tor project), etc. accept the award on behalf of the Internet, the point being they're most representative of making the technology available for dissidents. You should not ask say Tim Berners-Lee to accept an award on behalf of the internet because all this progress has been a side effect of his work. And it'd just be asinine awarding Facebook and Twitter. Yes, they played a major role, but so did radio, fax, etc.