[WikiEN-l] Re: Google Alert - Wikipedia

[Phil Boswell]

"Daniel R. Tobias" <dan at tobias.name> wrote in 
message news:43810980.1469.B786808 at dan.tobias.name...
> On 20 Nov 2005 at 22:11, ABCD 
> <en.abcd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> > ... Wikimedia has emerged from the Wikipedia, the freely-available,
>> > editable, open and collaborative online encyclopaedia set up by
>> > Jimmy Wales. ... <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4450052.stm>
>
> But just what did Jimmy mean by this statement:
>
> "We are not talking about dissidents and being critical of the
> Chinese government," he said, stressing that Wikipedia was about
> having the tools to promote your culture.
>
> Is Wikipedia (the Chinese version) censoring out any dissident or
> government-critical views in the hopes of getting unblocked by the
> Chinese (mainland) government?

My impression of what he was meaning (and I suspect that quote is much 
cut-down from his original wording) was that in blocking the Chinese 
Wikipedia, the information being suppressed is not just that stuff, which 
you wouldn't really be surprised about the Chinese Government wanting to 
keep quiet, but also the **other** stuff about general topics.

The block means that people in China cannot see Wikipedia **at all**. 
They're not simply prevented from accessing articles which might (or might 
not) be critical about their Government, they can't see even articles about 
everyday life, utterly non-controversial and often important.

HTH HAND
-- 
Phil
[[en:User:Phil Boswell]]