Hi Philip,
Finding a framework of rules seems to be necessary. As far as I
know, but I am relatively new to the team of WLM international,
this is the first time the question comes up if a country should
be excluded from the international competition. Personally I'd see
that as a contradiction to the basics of all the Wikimedia
projects that aim to connect people from all over the world and to
share among all of us. As long as the organisers are independent
from political influence I see no reason to exclude them. Until
now it always was one of the goals to include as many countries as
possible.
Regarding subnational (or also transnational) entities it very
much depends on who is organising the campaign there I think. It
should at least be a group of people. New problems may arise if a
monument is "claimed" by different groups I can imagine. On the
other hand there might be situations with difficulties that are
beyond our influence. Anyway we have to be careful (neutral and
unpolitical) when trying to find regulations.
Best,
Manfred
Hi Ruben,
thank for giving your reasoning - I would urge you and the team though to establish some rules (since you mention the lack of rules around this issue) for future competitions, since the war in Ukraine is not the only conflict happening right now and will unfortunately not be the last one either.
The same goes for establishing a logic around admitting countries and nations within certain countries. The 2030 strategy is quite clear on the fact that equity in participation and access to resources matters, and sticking to a country-by-country approach limits the viability of WLM for the architectural/cultural heritage of ethnic groups within a country (or is dependent on the benevolence of the majority group in that country)
Best,Philip
On Tue, 13 Dec 2022 at 21:03, Rodelar <rodelarwiki@gmail.com> wrote:
_______________________________________________Hi everyone,
The Wiki Loves Monuments international team has been asked if photographs from Russia should be allowed or excluded from participating in this year's international contest. We have been in contact with the organising teams of Wiki Loves Monuments from Ukraine and from Russia to discuss this and to find a solution.
We greatly appreciate that the team from Ukraine has organized the local edition of the competition while there is war in their country! We understand that there are reservations against seeing images from Ukraine and Russia presented side by side in the galleries of nominated or winning pictures.
The volunteer team organising Wiki Loves Monuments Russia emphasizes to have no ties to the Russian government or the Russian Wikimedia affiliate. They are submitting the 10 finalist images to the international final round of Wiki Loves Monuments 2022, but the occupied areas, including Crimea and Sevastopol, have been excluded from the Wiki Loves monuments campaign. Also, in Russia there is no freedom of panorama for works of art. This excludes, in fact, any images of monuments and statues erected since World War II, and which for example glorify the war, from being legally uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.
If images from Russia are excluded because of the war in Ukraine, this could, without being based on a rule for the competition, set a precedent for other territories where there is war around the world. Rules would have to found, before deciding case by case, if a country should not be allowed to send its nominations to Wiki Loves Monuments international.
With these considerations in mind, the WLM organising team does not see a reason to exclude the submission of Russian finalists images to the international final round.
On behalf of the WLM 2022 organising team,
Rubén Ojeda
International jury coordinator, Wiki Loves Monuments 2022
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