'No winners' in Guardian-WikiLeaks fight

It should have been a vote to celebrate a hero, but the furore over the Guardian's 'Person of the Year' competition has put two very different individuals in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, writes Rhiannon Elston.

Lawyers for Bradley Manning, charged with leaking documents to WikiLeaks, say he should be released.

Others weighed into the debate on Twitter, and that's when it started to get really ugly.

To greatly summarise the exchange, supporters for both sides of the argument accused the opposing party of trying to manipulate the results for their own interest.

The Guardian, apart from its initial post on the subject, has not weighed into the discussion further. Nor has it, critics claim, paid the competition goodwill and followed up with a more in-depth look at Bradley Manning's impact on society.

The comments from WikiLeaks speak for themself.

Regardless of the real or intended outcomes, it's a loss for all contenders who have now had their deeds overshadowed by a Twitter war of words.