Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best,DerHexerWikimedia Steward Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all, As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation? Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife? Is there anything the community can do? Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions *on a public mailing list* would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer *Wikimedia Steward*
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe < jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally, Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia, published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions *on a public mailing list* would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer *Wikimedia Steward*
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe < jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 at 14:07, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
Given Mohammed bin Salman current apparent attitude towards the US none of those can reasonably be considered "anything in support ". Realisticaly the only things likely to have any impact would be sactions (non viable due to wider issues with global oil suppliers) or rather a lot of violence (which has some very obvious downsides). The upshot is that US goverment has very little ability to do anything (even if it wanted to) and the foundation not at all.
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally, Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia, published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions *on a public mailing list* would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer *Wikimedia Steward*
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe < jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Thanks for this response - as little content as it may have. I can totally understand it.
As I was reading the questions in this thread, I felt uneasy with the questions, because I can imagine that there are people working on these issues in our movement (whether in the WMF or not) who may have a strategy in mind where silence is more helpful. Whether Andreas is asking these questions because he wants to publish a story in the Signpost, or because he wants to help personally, I do understand that there is a general desire for more information and can't blame them for asking (as long as they in turn understand that there may not be a meaningful answer when none can be provided without harming the cause).
That being said, as a community we often take the approach of trying to help. So let me ask the elephant-in-the-room question: how can we help these individual cases as a community? I think what some of the community members are trying to gauge is whether there is silence because it's considered the safer thing to do, or that it is because there are not enough resources available.
I could guess the answers of course, but perhaps it would be helpful to know: - If people/affiliates have a specific concern whether someone is on your radar, where to send the message (I think this is already answered on your linked meta page: send a private email) - If people/affiliates want to help, who should they contact to know which actions are actually helpful (i.e. be quiet or make noise)? Would it be correct to assume that the community office hours would be the best venue? - I'm assuming you may have an overview page somewhere with individual cases you're actively 'making noise' about (e.g. a blog category/label). Perhaps you could link that overview from the meta page? - If the WMF sees no scenario where community involvement on this topic would be helpful, is there another organization you would recommend to look at instead?
Finally, there may be some Wikimedians who have concerns whether your strategy is the right one. I'm not sure if you could speak to this, but for them it might be interesting to know whether the WMF has a standard policy to never speak about these individual cases, or will do so selectively, when it's helpful (is it ever? I assume there are such situations, but I'm no expert). Between the lines, I seem to infer that the WMF has a 'selectively' type of policy, but I also imagine that such communication would likely come from the communication team, rather than directly from the human rights team.
Best, Lodewijk
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights < talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org> wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally, Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia, published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions *on a public mailing list* would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer *Wikimedia Steward*
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe < jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual’s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally, Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia, published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer Wikimedia Steward
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Hello, all.
I’m Maggie Dennis. I’m the VP who oversees our human rights team in its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It’s devastating when community members face targeting for their dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique, and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can’t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team’s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Human_Rights_Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14 AM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual’s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring
the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi
Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this
year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without
Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were
Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country
report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com
wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on a
public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer Wikimedia Steward
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe <
jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In
the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had
married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello, all.
I’m Maggie Dennis. I’m the VP who oversees our human rights team in its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It’s devastating when community members face targeting for their dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique, and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can’t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team’s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Human_Rights_Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14 AM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual’s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring
the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com
wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi
Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this
year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters
without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were
Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country
report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com
wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on a
public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
Best, DerHexer Wikimedia Steward
Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe <
jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
Dear all,
As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In
the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had
married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
Is there anything the community can do?
Andreas
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
"Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?"
We organized Wikipedia editing events in 2011-12 for Aaron Swartz. Events were not so documented back then, but there were wiki meetups in the United States before and after his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
In 2016-17 we did events for Bassell, not knowing that he had already passed. Here is some of what I can find but the events were organized in anticipation of his release. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editathon_for_Bassel https://www.wired.com/story/free-bassel-essay/
For both of these, there was a lot of online and in-person Wikimedia activism in response to the legal accusations against them. I do not know if we ever had storytelling or journalism documenting that though.
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 4:46 PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello, all.
I’m Maggie Dennis. I’m the VP who oversees our human rights team in its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It’s devastating when community members face targeting for their dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique, and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can’t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team’s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Human_Rights_Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14 AM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual’s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring
the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com
wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed
Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this
year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters
without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were
Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country
report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com
wrote:
Frankly, that's implausible.
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> > I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on
a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
> > Best, > DerHexer > Wikimedia Steward > > Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe <
jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
> > > Dear all, > > As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In
the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
> > Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had
married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
> > Is there anything the community can do? > > Andreas > > [1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
> _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Thanks, Lane.
The WMF published numerous Diff posts on Bassel. I believe the first one was in October 2015, less than a week after Bassel was killed:
#FREEBASSEL: Free culture advocate who built 3D renderings of Palmyra missing in Syria https://diff.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/
As for media coverage, in January 2016 Jimmy Wales wrote an article about Bassel for CNN:
Wikipedia founder: Information can beat oppression https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/20/opinions/wales-wikipedia-information-beat...
In March 2016, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel published an article on Bassel in The Guardian, again suggesting a hashtag:
"The world needs to ask: #whereisBassel?" https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/mar/16/jimmy-wales-the-worl...
The Foundation's silence https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=osama+saudi+site%3Adiff.wikimedia.org&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 on Osama and Ziyad is in marked contrast to that.
Andreas
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 3:04 PM Lane Rasberry lanerasberry@gmail.com wrote:
"Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?"
We organized Wikipedia editing events in 2011-12 for Aaron Swartz. Events were not so documented back then, but there were wiki meetups in the United States before and after his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
In 2016-17 we did events for Bassell, not knowing that he had already passed. Here is some of what I can find but the events were organized in anticipation of his release. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editathon_for_Bassel https://www.wired.com/story/free-bassel-essay/
For both of these, there was a lot of online and in-person Wikimedia activism in response to the legal accusations against them. I do not know if we ever had storytelling or journalism documenting that though.
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 4:46 PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello, all.
I’m Maggie Dennis. I’m the VP who oversees our human rights team in its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It’s devastating when community members face targeting for their dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique, and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can’t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team’s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Human_Rights_Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14 AM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual’s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51 PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring
the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06 AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com
wrote:
Let's put it a different way then:
Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed
Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this
year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters
without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were
Wikipedians on the PEN website:
https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/
The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country
report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
Andreas
On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09 PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com
wrote:
> > Frankly, that's implausible. > > On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> >> I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on
a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
>> >> Best, >> DerHexer >> Wikimedia Steward >> >> Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe <
jayen466@gmail.com> Folgendes geschrieben:
>> >> >> Dear all, >> >> As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In
the Media" in the current Signpost issue) – does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
>> >> Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had
married not long before being jailed in 2020 – has anyone been in touch with his wife?
>> >> Is there anything the community can do? >> >> Andreas >> >> [1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
>> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry 🟦🌀💙🌀🟦
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
There are some good ideas in this thread, but nothing concrete, actionable, and to which Foundation officials have been able and willing to give a clear, simple yes or no answer. Here is a simple and concrete proposal which could be started immediately:
Foundation personnel should reach out to Amnesty International leadership (i.e., https://www.amnesty.org/en/about-us/secretary-general-and-senior-leadership-...) asking them to include the jailed Arabic Wikipedia administrators in their Write for Rights campaign (https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/write-for-rights/) and in return offering to fund a Wikipedian in Residence editor position at a level sufficient to improve the articles on subjects of their campaigns as the availability of reliable sources allow.
This would not require public discussion of individual cases by Foundation officials. Presumably the Foundation would be able to act on such a plan without additional authorization from the Trustees.
Are there any downsides?
-LW
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 9:37 AM Christophe Henner christophe.henner@gmail.com wrote:
Crap I?ve hit sent too early!
I am not sure it exists, but in line with Lodewijk comment having a guide on how can people help and/or a place where people can list themselves to make it known they can be reached to help on those topics, could be ways to leverage our communities in those instances.
Christophe
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:34?PM, Christophe Henner christophe.henner@gmail.com wrote:
?Bassel was at a time when there was little to none activity on those topics.
Since then the approach got professionalized.
I understand the lack of information is frustrated, but most of the time any action taken has to be confidential.
Having been on the other side of curtain a bit, it?s one of the toughest topic there is.
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:25?PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
? Thanks, Lane.
The WMF published numerous Diff posts on Bassel. I believe the first one was in October 2015, less than a week after Bassel was killed:
#FREEBASSEL: Free culture advocate who built 3D renderings of Palmyra missing in Syria https://diff.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/
As for media coverage, in January 2016 Jimmy Wales wrote an article about Bassel for CNN:
Wikipedia founder: Information can beat oppression https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/20/opinions/wales-wikipedia-information-beat...
In March 2016, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel published an article on Bassel in The Guardian, again suggesting a hashtag:
"The world needs to ask: #whereisBassel?" https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/mar/16/jimmy-wales-the-worl...
The Foundation's silence on Osama and Ziyad is in marked contrast to that.
Andreas
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 3:04?PM Lane Rasberry lanerasberry@gmail.com wrote:
"Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?"
We organized Wikipedia editing events in 2011-12 for Aaron Swartz. Events were not so documented back then, but there were wiki meetups in the United States before and after his death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
In 2016-17 we did events for Bassell, not knowing that he had already passed. Here is some of what I can find but the events were organized in anticipation of his release. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editathon_for_Bassel https://www.wired.com/story/free-bassel-essay/
For both of these, there was a lot of online and in-person Wikimedia activism in response to the legal accusations against them. I do not know if we ever had storytelling or journalism documenting that though.
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 4:46?PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
????
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hello, all.
I?m Maggie Dennis. I?m the VP who oversees our human rights team in its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It?s devastating when community members face targeting for their dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique, and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can?t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team?s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14?AM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual?s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277 states: "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that the CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51?PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote:
In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06?AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote: > > Let's put it a different way then: > > Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail? > > I am asking because the press reports published at the start of this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.) > > For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians: > > https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo... > > Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles. > > I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally, Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF. > > There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were Wikipedians on the PEN website: > > https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/ > > The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia, published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned: > > https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices... > > Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity. > > Andreas > > > > On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09?PM The Cunctator cunctator@gmail.com wrote: >> >> Frankly, that's implausible. >> >> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote: >>> >>> I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions on a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you. >>> >>> Best, >>> DerHexer >>> Wikimedia Steward >>> >>> Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Folgendes geschrieben: >>> >>> >>> Dear all, >>> >>> As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see "In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) ? does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation? >>> >>> Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama had married not long before being jailed in 2020 ? has anyone been in touch with his wife? >>> >>> Is there anything the community can do? >>> >>> Andreas >>> >>> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi... >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry ?????
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
This does indeed seem to make some assumptions: * That WMF is not already in contact with relevant human rights organizations * That including these individuals in a writing campaign is indeed considered the best approach to help them at this point * That a public association of this type is considered a best practice regarding the safety of other Wikimedians who are at risk, both now and in the future
I'm not sure if I see the benefit of tying a collaboration regarding the safety of individuals to a writing effort on Wikipedia. Shouldn't we be interested in improving those articles regardless? Wouldn't human rights organizations care about individuals such as these regardless? Tying them together could come across like we're horse trading - which would reflect poorly on both efforts on such a sensitive topic.
I don't have the insight whether these assumptions would hold - but I appreciate your thinking along. What I hear throughout the discussion, is a group of community members that care, and seem to offer to help. I hope that the WMF human rights team takes that information into account as they evaluate the options. But I also realize that they do have a full plate, and responding to these discussions is probably not their first priority. I hope some of the voices here will participate in the to-be-announced office hours.
Lodewijk
On Mon, Oct 9, 2023 at 10:12 PM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
There are some good ideas in this thread, but nothing concrete, actionable, and to which Foundation officials have been able and willing to give a clear, simple yes or no answer. Here is a simple and concrete proposal which could be started immediately:
Foundation personnel should reach out to Amnesty International leadership (i.e.,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/about-us/secretary-general-and-senior-leadership-... ) asking them to include the jailed Arabic Wikipedia administrators in their Write for Rights campaign (https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/write-for-rights/) and in return offering to fund a Wikipedian in Residence editor position at a level sufficient to improve the articles on subjects of their campaigns as the availability of reliable sources allow.
This would not require public discussion of individual cases by Foundation officials. Presumably the Foundation would be able to act on such a plan without additional authorization from the Trustees.
Are there any downsides?
-LW
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 9:37 AM Christophe Henner christophe.henner@gmail.com wrote:
Crap I?ve hit sent too early!
I am not sure it exists, but in line with Lodewijk comment having a
guide on how can people help and/or a place where people can list themselves to make it known they can be reached to help on those topics, could be ways to leverage our communities in those instances.
Christophe
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:34?PM, Christophe Henner <
christophe.henner@gmail.com> wrote:
?Bassel was at a time when there was little to none activity on those
topics.
Since then the approach got professionalized.
I understand the lack of information is frustrated, but most of the time
any action taken has to be confidential.
Having been on the other side of curtain a bit, it?s one of the toughest
topic there is.
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:25?PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
? Thanks, Lane.
The WMF published numerous Diff posts on Bassel. I believe the first one
was in October 2015, less than a week after Bassel was killed:
#FREEBASSEL: Free culture advocate who built 3D renderings of Palmyra
missing in Syria
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/
As for media coverage, in January 2016 Jimmy Wales wrote an article
about Bassel for CNN:
Wikipedia founder: Information can beat oppression
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/20/opinions/wales-wikipedia-information-beat...
In March 2016, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel published an article on Bassel
in The Guardian, again suggesting a hashtag:
"The world needs to ask: #whereisBassel?"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/mar/16/jimmy-wales-the-worl...
The Foundation's silence on Osama and Ziyad is in marked contrast to
that.
Andreas
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 3:04?PM Lane Rasberry lanerasberry@gmail.com
wrote:
"Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized
to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?"
We organized Wikipedia editing events in 2011-12 for Aaron Swartz.
Events were not so documented back then, but there were wiki meetups in the United States before and after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
In 2016-17 we did events for Bassell, not knowing that he had already
passed. Here is some of what I can find but the events were organized in anticipation of his release.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editathon_for_Bassel https://www.wired.com/story/free-bassel-essay/
For both of these, there was a lot of online and in-person Wikimedia
activism in response to the legal accusations against them. I do not know if we ever had storytelling or journalism documenting that though.
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 4:46?PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were mobilized
to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be
an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
????
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Hello, all.
I?m Maggie Dennis. I?m the VP who oversees our human rights team in
its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It?s devastating when community members face targeting for their
dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have
partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique,
and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our
strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can?t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk about
general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team?s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I
also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14?AM Lauren Worden <
laurenworden89@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear WMF Human Rights Team:
I would like some clarification on your statement below. In particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best practices described at
https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners
to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political prisoners, advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in private, in their efforts to secure an individual?s release"?
The literature review at https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277
states:
"The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several
potential
roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform]. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses
and
advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations."
If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that
the
CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal policies such that best practices can be upheld.
-LW
On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51?PM WMF Human Rights talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote: > > In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and
ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
> > On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06?AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com
wrote:
>> >> Let's put it a different way then: >> >> Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed
Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
>> >> I am asking because the press reports published at the start of
this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
>> >> For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters
without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
>> >>
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
>> >> Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
>> >> I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
>> >> There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they were
Wikipedians on the PEN website:
>> >> https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/ >> >> The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
>> >>
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
>> >> Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023 country
report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
>> >> Andreas >> >> >> >> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09?PM The Cunctator <
cunctator@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>> Frankly, that's implausible. >>> >>> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
>>>> >>>> I do think that posting any kind of response to these questions
on a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
>>>> >>>> Best, >>>> DerHexer >>>> Wikimedia Steward >>>> >>>> Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas
Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Folgendes geschrieben:
>>>> >>>> >>>> Dear all, >>>> >>>> As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see
"In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) ? does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
>>>> >>>> Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama
had married not long before being jailed in 2020 ? has anyone been in touch with his wife?
>>>> >>>> Is there anything the community can do? >>>> >>>> Andreas >>>> >>>> [1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
>>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry ?????
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines
at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Dear all,
To give an example of how human rights organisations deal with Internet-related cases in Saudi Arabia, the Amnesty International website has a page titled "*Saudi Arabia: Release activist jailed for 34yrs for tweets: Salma al-Shehab*":
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde23/5961/2022/en/
This gives an overview of the facts of the case and calls for the prisoner's immediate and unconditional release. It then presents a model letter titled "*URGENT ACTION* Release activist jailed for 34 yrs for tweets" and invites members of the public to write an appeal, based on his model letter or in their own words, addressed to the Office of His Majesty the King at the Royal Court in Riyadh.
Is it the Wikimedia Foundation Human Rights Team's contention that it would be harmful to Osama's and Ziyad's interests to have similar pages for them on the websites of Amnesty International and other human rights organisations? And that it would be harmful to Osama and Ziyad to have members of the community and the wider public write letters to the Saudi Royal Court, calling for their release?
Andreas
On Tue, Oct 10, 2023 at 10:44 PM effe iets anders effeietsanders@gmail.com wrote:
This does indeed seem to make some assumptions:
- That WMF is not already in contact with relevant human rights
organizations
- That including these individuals in a writing campaign is indeed
considered the best approach to help them at this point
- That a public association of this type is considered a best practice
regarding the safety of other Wikimedians who are at risk, both now and in the future
I'm not sure if I see the benefit of tying a collaboration regarding the safety of individuals to a writing effort on Wikipedia. Shouldn't we be interested in improving those articles regardless? Wouldn't human rights organizations care about individuals such as these regardless? Tying them together could come across like we're horse trading - which would reflect poorly on both efforts on such a sensitive topic.
I don't have the insight whether these assumptions would hold - but I appreciate your thinking along. What I hear throughout the discussion, is a group of community members that care, and seem to offer to help. I hope that the WMF human rights team takes that information into account as they evaluate the options. But I also realize that they do have a full plate, and responding to these discussions is probably not their first priority. I hope some of the voices here will participate in the to-be-announced office hours.
Lodewijk
On Mon, Oct 9, 2023 at 10:12 PM Lauren Worden laurenworden89@gmail.com wrote:
There are some good ideas in this thread, but nothing concrete, actionable, and to which Foundation officials have been able and willing to give a clear, simple yes or no answer. Here is a simple and concrete proposal which could be started immediately:
Foundation personnel should reach out to Amnesty International leadership (i.e.,
https://www.amnesty.org/en/about-us/secretary-general-and-senior-leadership-... ) asking them to include the jailed Arabic Wikipedia administrators in their Write for Rights campaign (https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/write-for-rights/) and in return offering to fund a Wikipedian in Residence editor position at a level sufficient to improve the articles on subjects of their campaigns as the availability of reliable sources allow.
This would not require public discussion of individual cases by Foundation officials. Presumably the Foundation would be able to act on such a plan without additional authorization from the Trustees.
Are there any downsides?
-LW
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 9:37 AM Christophe Henner christophe.henner@gmail.com wrote:
Crap I?ve hit sent too early!
I am not sure it exists, but in line with Lodewijk comment having a
guide on how can people help and/or a place where people can list themselves to make it known they can be reached to help on those topics, could be ways to leverage our communities in those instances.
Christophe
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:34?PM, Christophe Henner <
christophe.henner@gmail.com> wrote:
?Bassel was at a time when there was little to none activity on those
topics.
Since then the approach got professionalized.
I understand the lack of information is frustrated, but most of the
time any action taken has to be confidential.
Having been on the other side of curtain a bit, it?s one of the
toughest topic there is.
On Oct 8, 2023, at 6:25?PM, Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com wrote:
? Thanks, Lane.
The WMF published numerous Diff posts on Bassel. I believe the first
one was in October 2015, less than a week after Bassel was killed:
#FREEBASSEL: Free culture advocate who built 3D renderings of Palmyra
missing in Syria
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2015/10/08/bassel-missing-syria/
As for media coverage, in January 2016 Jimmy Wales wrote an article
about Bassel for CNN:
Wikipedia founder: Information can beat oppression
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/20/opinions/wales-wikipedia-information-beat...
In March 2016, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel published an article on
Bassel in The Guardian, again suggesting a hashtag:
"The world needs to ask: #whereisBassel?"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2016/mar/16/jimmy-wales-the-worl...
The Foundation's silence on Osama and Ziyad is in marked contrast to
that.
Andreas
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 3:04?PM Lane Rasberry lanerasberry@gmail.com
wrote:
"Have there been any recent cases where community voices were
mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?"
We organized Wikipedia editing events in 2011-12 for Aaron Swartz.
Events were not so documented back then, but there were wiki meetups in the United States before and after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
In 2016-17 we did events for Bassell, not knowing that he had already
passed. Here is some of what I can find but the events were organized in anticipation of his release.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bassel_Khartabil https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editathon_for_Bassel https://www.wired.com/story/free-bassel-essay/
For both of these, there was a lot of online and in-person Wikimedia
activism in response to the legal accusations against them. I do not know if we ever had storytelling or journalism documenting that though.
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 4:46?PM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Have there been any recent cases where community voices were
mobilized to contribute to national or international campaigns for someone's release?
It sounds like a community group, working to support others, might be
an outlet for interest in advocating for those in jail, and maintaining up to date information on their condition and needs, ways to get letters to them, &c. They could get advice from the WMF team, and work with and through Amnesty (et al). The reasons that a specific org might not want to advocate openly for a victim may not apply to individuals, who have their own leverage and can advocate on behalf of humanity.
SJ
????
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023, 2:58 PM Maggie Dennis mdennis@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Hello, all.
I?m Maggie Dennis. I?m the VP who oversees our human rights team in
its work. Reiterating what the team previously said about not being able to discuss particular situations, I can disclose a little more general points about our approach as you pose, LW, and, I hope, address some of your concerns, Lodewijk.
It?s devastating when community members face targeting for their
dedication to supporting free knowledge. This matters a lot to me, to my team, and to all the Foundation. I know it matters to you as well.
The Wikimedia Foundation does resource this important work. We have
partners in this field with whom we collaborate closely. Our human rights team possesses extensive experience in addressing such issues and also maintains strong connections with NGOs specializing in these areas. We regularly engage with these organizations on both general matters and specific cases.
Every situation in which a community member is targeted is unique,
and we recognize the need for specialized responses and support. Volunteer well-being is our priority, and we are committed to providing the right assistance for each case. While we believe in the importance of public discourse and transparency, safety always takes precedence. In some instances, the Foundation has found it appropriate to speak publicly to address these challenges and have done so. In others, we may be advised to handle matters differently.
In terms of some Wikimedians who might have concerns whether our
strategy is the right one, I fully respect that there must be. Because each case is different and frequently these situations are highly complex, we know that even different expert organizations might rank the risk and the right response of a specific situation differently. We have sometimes sought multiple opinions on a case. At the end of the day, we collaborate closely with relevant groups on our response to ensure the safety and well-being of individuals affected and the broader community members who could be impacted. We do the best we can to uphold the principles of free knowledge while prioritizing safety for everyone.
While I can?t discuss specific cases, I am always happy to talk
about general matters of policy and approach in my quarterly community conversations. We will also answer questions to the extent that we believe we safely can that are posed about the team?s work to talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org. Depending on the case,the human rights team may provide ways to help or avenues to connect with organizations who are supporting. They may also be able to advise when silence is regarded as the best response. (There are some risks to being too open about who we work with and how we work that we need to consider every time.)
People can read more generally about the human rights team here.
While this is not my area of focus in my role at the Foundation, I
also want to generally call out that the Foundation also conducts human rights advocacy routinely in regards to legislation. Our Global Advocacy team not only meets with legislators around the world to fight for the rights that keep free knowledge free, but also considers and guides our work by providing proactive human rights assessments and policy development, such as the Human Rights Policy.
Best regards,
Maggie
On Thu, Oct 5, 2023 at 3:14?AM Lauren Worden <
laurenworden89@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Dear WMF Human Rights Team: > > I would like some clarification on your statement below. In > particular, does your stated approach allow you to follow the best > practices described at >
https://freedomhouse.org/2023/summit-for-democracy-political-prisoners
> to, e.g., "meet regularly with family members of political
prisoners,
> advocacy groups, and media outlets and journalists, in public and in > private, in their efforts to secure an individual?s release"? > > The literature review at > https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/17277
states:
> "The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several
potential
> roles to civil society in [security sector and justice reform].
These
> include making security and justice institutions accountable, > mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses
and
> advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving > security-citizen relations." > > If the Foundation staff has prohibited itself from engaging with the > public on freeing jailed wikipedians, orchestrating letter writing > campaigns, or coordinating with other NGOs and government agencies, > such as those Andreas has described as having no record of the > imprisoned Arabic Wikipedia administrators, then I would hope that
the
> CEO or Trustees would step in immediately to rectify any internal > policies such that best practices can be upheld. > > -LW > > > On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 3:51?PM WMF Human Rights > talktohumanrights@wikimedia.org wrote: > > > > In the interest of safeguarding confidential information and
ensuring the safety of our community members, the Foundation will not publicly disclose details regarding human rights cases. The Human Rights Team recently updated its meta page to clarify this approach. Our primary concern is to uphold the safety and privacy of everyone involved. At the same time, our inability to discuss these matters should not be read as inaction. We care deeply about volunteer safety and our role, more generally, involves different levels of internal support, wider advocacy and partnerships with others depending on the circumstances of an event.
> > > > On Tue, Oct 3, 2023 at 6:06?AM Andreas Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com
wrote:
> >> > >> Let's put it a different way then: > >> > >> Is anyone at the WMF doing anything in support of the two jailed
Saudi Wikimedians, be it liaising with international or regional human rights organisations, the US State Department, briefing journalists so the wider public is aware of the situation, or anything else to make sure Osama and Ziyad aren't forgotten about as they start (by my calculation) their fourth year in jail?
> >> > >> I am asking because the press reports published at the start of
this year do not seem to have led to any significant coverage of the two Wikimedians' plight on the websites of major human rights organisations. (If I have missed any, please let me know.)
> >> > >> For example, I found nothing at all on the website of Reporters
without Borders. Similarly, the most recent Amnesty International report on the "crackdown on online expression" in Saudi Arabia includes several mentions of Twitter users but none of Wikipedians:
> >> > >>
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/saudi-arabia-alarming-crackdo...
> >> > >> Amnesty's report specifically mentions that a Twitter user was
sentenced for supporting women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul but fails to mention that one of the jailed Wikimedians uploaded Loujain al-Hathloul's Commons picture, which is used in her Wikipedia articles.
> >> > >> I didn't find anything about Osama and Ziyad or, more generally,
Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia on the website of the EFF.
> >> > >> There is a mention of Osama and Ziyad and the fact that they
were Wikipedians on the PEN website:
> >> > >> https://pen.org/report/freedom-to-write-index-2022/ > >> > >> The U.S. State Department's 2022 country report on Saudi Arabia,
published in March 2023, includes a mention of Osama's 32-year prison sentence, but doesn't make clear that he was jailed for being a Wikipedian, and Ziyad is not mentioned:
> >> > >>
https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices...
> >> > >> Will this be remedied in the U.S. State Department's 2023
country report? I think each country report covers the period up to October of the preceding year, so this month will be the last chance to make sure the 2023 report published next spring will include information on Osama and Ziyad's prison sentences and their Wikipedia activity.
> >> > >> Andreas > >> > >> > >> > >> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023 at 11:09?PM The Cunctator <
cunctator@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> > >>> Frankly, that's implausible. > >>> > >>> On Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 3:37 PM DerHexer via Wikimedia-l <
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >>>> > >>>> I do think that posting any kind of response to these
questions on a public mailing list would do more harm than good. Thank you.
> >>>> > >>>> Best, > >>>> DerHexer > >>>> Wikimedia Steward > >>>> > >>>> Am Montag, 25. September 2023 um 21:20:21 MESZ hat Andreas
Kolbe jayen466@gmail.com Folgendes geschrieben:
> >>>> > >>>> > >>>> Dear all, > >>>> > >>>> As there was a recent press mention of Osama and Ziyad[1] (see
"In the Media" in the current Signpost issue) ? does the WMF's Human Rights Team (cc'ed) have any update on their situation?
> >>>> > >>>> Has anyone else heard any news? If I recall correctly, Osama
had married not long before being jailed in 2020 ? has anyone been in touch with his wife?
> >>>> > >>>> Is there anything the community can do? > >>>> > >>>> Andreas > >>>> > >>>> [1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_imprisoned_for_editing_Wikipedi...
> >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> >>>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> >>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> >>>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> >>>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> >>> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> >>> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> > Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> > To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
> _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
> Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
> To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Maggie Dennis She/her/hers Vice President, Community Resilience & Sustainability Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to
wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
-- Lane Rasberry user:bluerasberry ?????
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org,
guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at
https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/...
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/... To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org