Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' Australian founder, was given a peace award on Tuesday for "exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights."

Assange was famed for exasperating Washington by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

The Sydney Peace Foundation awarded Assange with a gold medal in London, only the fourth to be handed out in its 14-year history. The “not-for-profit” organization associated with the University of Sydney is supported by the City of Sydney.

The computer expert was praised for "challenging centuries old practices of government secrecy and by championing people's right to know." Assange is currently combating exile from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes.

Professor Stuart Rees, the director of the foundation, said "We think the struggle for peace with justice inevitably involves conflict, inevitably involves controversy. We think that you and WikiLeaks have brought about what we think is a watershed in journalism and in freedom of information and potentially in politics."

Assange also slammed the Australian government as he depicts the administration "appalled by the violent behavior by major politicians in the United States." Assange furthered that Australia must stop shoring up Washington's efforts to "behave like a totalitarian state".

With the publication of its cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables which revealed secrets such as that Saudi leaders had urged U.S. military action against Iran, WikiLeaks produced a media and diplomatic turbulence at the last quarter of last year.

Some American politicians suggested that WikiLeaks be defined as an international terrorist organization.

The Australian founder claimed publication of the cables caused the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East and clarified that WikiLeaks was on the side of justice.