04 Feb 2011 03:45:28
The accounts by journalists for the Guardian and German magazine Der Spiegel describe their publications' turbulent relations with the mercurial WikiLeaks founder.
Assange, an Australian-born computer hacker, became an international celebrity last year after his website acquired, and began to make public, hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. government documents.
The Guardian and Spiegel journalists' books are part of the first wave of what could become a flood of writings, documentaries and feature films about the WikiLeaks phenomenon and Assange, its colorful figurehead.
Other publications either in the works or already released include an "e-book" put together by the New York Times, "The Age of WikiLeaks," by Greg Mitchell, a blogger for The Nation magazine, and Assange's own book, for which he reportedly received an advance of around $1.5 million.
Earlier this week, Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen nominated WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, saying the website had become "one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency" in the 21st century.
Assange, an Australian-born computer hacker, became an international celebrity last year after his website acquired, and began to make public, hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. government documents.
The Guardian and Spiegel journalists' books are part of the first wave of what could become a flood of writings, documentaries and feature films about the WikiLeaks phenomenon and Assange, its colorful figurehead.
Other publications either in the works or already released include an "e-book" put together by the New York Times, "The Age of WikiLeaks," by Greg Mitchell, a blogger for The Nation magazine, and Assange's own book, for which he reportedly received an advance of around $1.5 million.
Earlier this week, Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen nominated WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, saying the website had become "one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency" in the 21st century.
