Am posting my response to James Alexander's email here FYI, and his
original email all below
My name is David Robert Lewis, an independent researcher at
Medialternatives.com.
As an anti-apartheid activist and journalist at several banned publications
taken off the shelves by the apartheid state, I object to your blatantly
dishonest and false accusations.
I therefore refute the allegations that I have in any way disrupted the
Tunis Conference, since I have not traveled out of my country for several
years.
Secondly I refute any allegation that I attended the so-called
"Decolonising the Internet" Pre-Conference in Cape Town, since I was not
admitted to the event, but was rather subjected to contempt by Anasuyas of
WhoseKnowledge.org.
Instead of making space for my concerns about the obliteration and deletion
of apartheid memory, in particular the deletion of inter alia, pages on
Student Unrest on UCT campus, Apartheid Death Squads, Apartheid Dirty
Tricks, bannings of journalists and torture of editors by the regime,
and/or my concerns surrounding lack of anti-apartheid digital assets and
digitization of archives, she proceeded to dispute my credentials, telling
me that she would 'only communicate with me when she got back to India'.
I therefore left the venue quite hurt and upset and proceeded to film some
delegates entering and leaving the conference venue.
I interviewed a delegate from Brazil, a delegate from Mexico and latin
America and was accosted by a Wikimedia Foundation official who inst
On 19 Jul 2018 7:41 pm, "James Alexander" <jalexander(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Dear Mr. Lewis,
My name is James Alexander, I am the Operations Manager for Trust & Safety
at the Wikimedia Foundation.
I am writing to tell you that we have decided to cancel your registration
to Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town for tomorrow (Friday), Saturday and Sunday.
If you choose to try and attend anyway you will be asked to leave.
I realize that this may seem a bit abrupt however we received complaints
from attendees feeling uncomfortable about your behavior at the
Decolonizimg the Internet conference earlier this week in addition to
concerns about your behavior at WikiIndaba in Tunis earlier this year. As I
am sure you understand we need to take the safety and comfort of our
attendees as a paramount concern and the decision has been made that at
this time your attendance would disrupt that too much. I am sorry that this
message came to you so close to the actual event as it did but
unfortunately we were not able to fully understand the situation until
today.
As always please let me know if there is any questions and I appreciate
your understanding.
James Alexander
Manager, Trust & Safety
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
ead of upholding my rights as a citizen, proceeded to attack my standing as
a member of the press in public.
I had to inform her that South Africa has a free press and also that the
preamble to our constitution compels citizens and non-citizens alike, to
respect those who fought during the struggle for freedom.
I therefore once again, provide you with an opportunity to correct your
course of action, to restore my credentials at the conference and to make
space for apartheid memory.
https://medialternatives.com/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ethnopunk
https://www.youtube.com/davidrobertlewis