The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has today been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The nomination comes after a stellar year for the anti-secrecy site, which became a household name after releasing the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs and, more recently, more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables.
In recent months, however, an increasing number of allegations against the website’s founder, Julian Assange, have overshadowed the site’s achievements.
Today’s announcement comes just days after Assange lost his fight against extradition to Sweden, to face allegations of rape and sexual molestation. New allegations also appeared today in Private Eye, which claims that Assange blames his plight on three journalists – Alan Rusbridger, David Leigh and the former editor of the New Statesman John Kampfner – all of whom, Assange claimed falsely, “were Jewish”.
The other nominees for the prize include the Afghan rights advocate Sima Samar, the European Union, the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya Sardinas, and the Russian rights group Memorial as well as its founder, Svetlana Gannushkina.
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