From: SMTP%"wikinews-l(a)Wikimedia.org" "Wikinews mailing list" 29-MAR-2006 14:23:30.23
Anthere wrote:
>Tricky issue here.
>
>I have discussed it a bit on the polish irc channel.
>
>I am not entirely sure what had been decided regarding passes on the
>en.wikinews.
>
>And there is the issue of the editor in chief, which might be tricky.
>
>Could we discuss this together ?
en.wikinews has what we refer to as accredited reporters, and there's a
disclaimer in there that people *don't* represent the foundation. We maintain
a page for accreditation requests at [[Wikinews:Accreditation requests]], and a
list of accredited reporters and verification methods at [[Wikinews:Credential
verification]].
There's a template you can stick on your user page, which has a disclaimer...
"Accredited Wikinews reporters do not represent the Wikimedia Foundation, but
are trusted contributors who the Wikinews community have certified for the
purposes of gathering information related to Wikinews articles.", and the key
thing that has been mentioned in relation to this is its use for original
reporting. This stresses that you can't say you represent wikinews. You're an
independent reporter who has been recognised as a journalist by the wikinews
community.
>From there it's down to individuals, companies, and country-specific laws. In
the US I believe people have been issued press passes to sporting events based
on wikinews credentials, if I do not misunderstand the situation then there is
nothing like a requirement to be a member of a journalist's union or have
qualifications in journalism. Other countries may differ, and if the Polish
wiki community has a legal maven they need to speak up.
Moving on to "Editor In Chief", this isn't really the wiki way. One person
shouldn't be given specific powers such as (I imagine) suspending someone's
credentials. This would more likely be the function of an arbitration
committee. That's relatively young on en.wikinews, so you might just be
looking to have a group of three or so able to quickly respond to complaints
about misuse of credentials, and to organise votes on the issuing of
credentials.
Lastly, you need to look to start issuing credentials to people who will test
them out. If you have someone like a football fan who reports on his team's
matches, let him see if they'll issue him with a press pass for the grounds.
If you get one, make sure they see the end result. If you've a print edition,
mail them each copy that has an article with reporting from the grounds.
Hopefully some useful information can be extracted from the preceding
brain-dump.
Brian.