Hi Andreas
China was in fact the only country to oppose the Wikimedia chapters'
request for observer status. Other countries for political or unknown
reasons may have aligned with China's position on process, but no country
besides China unilaterally or independently opposed the Wikimedia chapters'
request.
Relatedly, you may have seen that the Wikimedia Foundation just obtained
accreditation at the UN's Economic and Social Affairs Council where a
similar situation was unblocked by a vote of the member countries:
Best,
Jan
==
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Director
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
jgerlach(a)wikimedia.org
Andreas Kolbe <jayen466(a)gmail.com> schrieb am Fr., 22. Juli 2022, 19:44:
Dear all,
A week ago, the WMF issued a press release, "Seven Wikimedia chapters
rejected as permanent observers to the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO)":
https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2022/07/15/seven-wikimedia-chapters-re…
This stated, in part, "China was the only country to oppose the
Wikimedia chapters’ request for observer status, again, claiming that
chapters were complicit in spreading disinformation and are subsidiaries of
the Wikimedia Foundation. These statements are unfounded and misrepresent
Wikipedia’s model which prioritizes accuracy, neutrality, as well as the
fact that the chapters are completely autonomous."
About a week ago, I had seen and retweeted a Twitter thread[1] by James
Love[2], the Director of Knowledge Ecology International, listing a whole
litany of countries that had supported China's position.
I checked the webcast of the July 15 WIPO proceedings today,[3] and
there were over a dozen countries – Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Iran, Syria, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia,
Venezuela, North Korea – that took the floor to support and endorse China's
position – more, in fact, than took the floor to support the chapters'
approval.
Would it be possible to amend the press release accordingly?
Best,
Andreas
[1]
https://twitter.com/jamie_love/status/1550520525180518400
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Love_(NGO_director)
[3] Available here:
https://webcast.wipo.int/ (afternoon session of
July 15, part 6. Admission of Observers)
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