My most favorite person ever honored my favorite person ever with her annual Courage for the Arts Award in New York City last night. Of course Julian Assange couldn’t be there to accept the award in person as he’s currently holed up in the Ecaudorian Embassy in London. He’s avoiding the po-po, silly! Anyway, Mr. Wikileaks accepted the award in absentia.

Yoko Ono said, “Our public officials have forgotten that they are ultimately accountable to the people who put them in office; that the information they keep in secrecy belongs to all of us. Julian Assange took a courageous step by rightfully returning what belongs to the public domain. For that reason, I believe we need to stand behind him.”

The evening also honored RSS creator and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in January while awaiting trial for hacking the computers of MIT in hopes to make their journals available to the public.

It should be noted that Mr. Assange is avoiding extradition to Sweden where is is facing allegations of rape and sexual assault. Of course, it seems like just a way to get him locked up for releasing dirty US government secrets. Or, at least, let’s hope so. If he were guilty, I’d look realllllyyy bad for calling him my ‘favorite person ever’, don’t you think?

[Via THR]