Anthere wrote that free content is a MEANS towards and END, a goal:

"Our goal is collecting information, gathering it and making it available." There is no political goal.

Actually, I agree with you completely.

Yes, "free content" is an enforced policy *only* because it furthers the goal of making information available, not for political reasons, as good as they may or may not be.

An enforced policy regarding threats of censorship would also be for *exactly* the same reasons, and *not* for any specific political reasons (whatever our opinions may be): to further the goal of making information available.

Nothing more and nothing less.

The current *lack* of such a policy actually *hinders* Wikimedia from meeting that goal. Case in point: The current lack of collecting and gathering free news information and making it available in Chinese. In the future there may very well be many more similar examples this sort of thing from different quarters.

The time to put such a policy in place is now, not later.

The need for such a policy is no less than for the various rules that are enforced regarding "free content."

Re: Fruggo's comments about censorship - What I am suggesting has nothing to do with censorship (real or imagined) within the editing process of Wikimedia projects. It relates *only* to the fear of censorship from *outside* powers-that-be, which would hinder the development of projects. The point of the editing process it to build projects, not to hinder them; they cannot be built without it.

Re: Chad's point about a threat to the Chinese Wikipedia: This is a good point, but I already addressed it in my original post. Please read that and tell us all what you think.

Dovi

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