(Credit: Time)

Time announced that Julian Assange’s “exploits” as WikiLeaks founder “have cemented him as a candidate for Time’s 2010 Person of the Year.”

So far, Time reported “more than 80,000 readers” have voted for Assange.

NBC Universal Women and Life Entertainment Networks president, Lauren Zalaznick, a previous honoree, explained why Assange was nominated.

“For better or for worse, Julian Assange has changed the accessibility to knowledge of the two wars that involve the U.S., within a matter of months.  He has also put journalistic integrity on a knife-blade edge: What is the responsibility of the journalist to make public or keep private?”