[First off, an apology - school testing and other school related matters have kept me away from Wikinews for a while now. I should be much more active in the Wikinewsie area after June 6th (when school lets out).

There really should be an embargoed space for accredited journalists to "get the facts straight" before it gets published. The point of a wiki is collaboration, but it is also a prime objective of a wiki to dessimate correct information to the public. The longer that false info is on the web, the more people see it - and that has been proven time after time on Wikipedia. If we have an embargoed wiki, it will give us a bigger lead time to develop stories rather than posting semi-correct information into the public view. Personally, I don't consider it censorship because we will (hopefully in a timely manner) release the story into the public view. The only thing that I can see that would be considered censorship is not releasing the revisions into the public view, although that's done automatically by MediaWiki using Special:Export and Special:Import.

Sorry if I've missed something; I've been focusing more on school than WN.

Dodge S.

----

Dodge Story

Journalist, Wikinews

http://www.wikinews.org

DISCLAIMER:

I do not represent the Wikimedia Foundation in any way shape or form. I have been accredited by the Wikinews community.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Wikinews-l] Censorshop
From: Phoenix Rose <inspiral@riseup.net>
Date: Mon, May 19, 2008 7:54 pm
To: Wikinews mailing list <wikinews-l@lists.wikimedia.org>

On 20/05/2008, at 6:08 AM, Sue Gardner wrote:
> Ilya Haykinson wrote:
>> The embargo system isn't perfect. In the case of political events of
>> high importance, embargo is simply unfair: a press conference makes
>> more sense, so everybody learns about it at once. However, in the
>> normal course of events, it solves the problem of having to inform
>> many journalists at once, and letting them have a day or more to do
>> their research and get their balanced articles going, without the
>> fear
>> that they'll be scooped by someone else.
>>
>> -ilya
>>
>
>
>> On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 9:02 AM, divol <jacques.divol@laposte.net>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> For exemple, in France, when there's a vote, no one should know the
>>> results before the end of the ballote, but journalists (and
>>> politics,
>>> friends and famillies) know, why ?, because "embargo"? (not good
>>> english i am sorry)

The specific example of embargo for a vote also makes sense: it is to
ensure that coverage of the voting shouldn't influence the way people
vote. If one province or state votes in one way and the coverage shows
this, people in other provinces that haven't finished voting may
decide not to bother voting, because they are disillusioned that their
candidate has already lost, or because they feel their candidate has
already won and that their vote doesn't matter. I think it's important
not to cover the vote until the ballot is closed, so that the media
doesn't influence the political outcome and leaves the people as free
as possible to vote the way they intend.

Hope that makes sense, Jacques. Here's my attempt to explain in
French, just in case:

L'exemple spécifique de l'embargo pour un vote semble également
raisonnable : ça assure que ce reportage n'influence pas le manière
des votes. Si un province ou état vote dans l'un façon ou l'autre , et
le reportage démontre ceci, les gens dans d'autres provinces qui n'ont
pas encore voté peuves décider de ne pas prendre la peine de voter,
parce qu'on les désillusionne que leur candidat a déjà perdu, ou parce
qu'ils se sentent que leur candidat a déjà gagné et que leur voix ne
comptent pas. Je pense que c'est important pour ne pas indiquer le
vote jusqu'au vote est fermé, ainsi que la media n'influence pas les
résultats politiques et laisse les gens aussi librement comme possible
de voter dans la manière qu'ils prévoient.

phoenix
--
"If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping with
a mosquito" -- Dalai Lama

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