WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded a gold medal by the Sydney Peace Foundation in recognition of his "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights", the Australian Associated Press reported. Previous winners of the award include Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.
The Queensland-born Assange was given the medal at a ceremony in London on Tuesday. This was only the fourth time in the organisation's 14-year history that the prize for "extraordinary achievement in promoting peace with justice" has been given out. Foundation director Stuart Rees said the award was to honour Assange's work in challenging official secrecy. "By challenging centuries-old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know, WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have created the potential for a new order in journalism and in the free flow of information," Rees said in a statement. But the director accused the Australian Government of demonising Assange.
"Instead of demonising an Australian citizen who has broken no law, the Australian Government must stop shoring up Washington's efforts to behave like a totalitarian state," he was quoted as saying. The government earlier said the release by WikiLeaks of thousands of US diplomatic cables and classified military documents may have involved criminality. Assange has welcomed the prize.
"The real value of this award, and the Sydney Peace Foundation, is that it makes explicit the link between peace and justice," he said in a statement. "It does not take the safe, feel-good option of shunning controversy by uttering platitudes. Instead it goes into difficult terrain by identifying organisations and individuals who are directly engaged in struggles of one kind or another," he said. Assange was arrested in London in December over allegations of sexual assault, but was released on bail.