Norwegian MP nominates Wikileaks for Nobel Peace Prize

Julian Assange could find just himself in the company of Barack Obama, the Dali Llama and Aung San Suu Kyi, after a Norwegian politician nominated Wikileaks for the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, the hacker turned world's favourite leaker-in-chief will no doubt be rather conscious of what happened to the likes of Martin Luther King and Anwar Sadat after they picked up their gongs.

Wikileaks was nominated by Norwegian politician Snorre Valen.

Valen has been a vocal supporter of the site, and drew comparisons between Wikileaks and last year's winner Liu Xiabao, who "was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his struggle for human rights, democracy and freedom of speech in China."

Likeswise, said Valen, "Wikileaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture – sometimes even conducted by allies of Norway."

Wikileaks watchers may or may not find it significant that Valen chose to nominate Wikileaks, not Assange, and did not mention the head mole-wrangler's name at all in his posting.

Either way, the chances of Assange making it to Oslo to pick up the medal, and the cash prize, seem slim at present. He is of course sitting tight in the UK as Swedish authorities seek to extradite him to answer questions relating to alleged sex offences in the country.

Still, he's got the Sydney Peace Foundation's prize as a consolation. ®