[Foundation-l] [Wikinews-l] Proposal for the creation of a Wikinews foundation

David Gerard dgerard at gmail.com
Wed Aug 22 15:11:01 UTC 2007


On 22/08/07, Craig Spurrier <craig at craigweb.net> wrote:

> I would expect we would have a mission statement along the lines of "The
> goal of the Wikinews organisation is to provide support for Wikinews
> users in the pursuit of citizen journalism". Not a perfect mission
> statement :) , but I think that echos my intentions for the
> organisation.


"support for neutral, free content, citizen journalism" ?


> At the moment our number one need is proper handling of
> accreditation. There are however many other tasks that a Wikinews
> organisation could handle. Most of these are best handled by a chapter
> or the WM foundation so as to avoid duplication of labour., but I am
> sure that if we so desired we could find lots of work for a Wikinews
> organisation .


Make sure to a reasonable extent it's not a target for lawsuits. i.e.,
it's not the publisher or editor of material on Wikimedia websites,
only any sites it actually puts up itself with its own resources. (The
local chapters make sure of this also.)


> None that I am aware of. Most CJ projects are so set on the idea of
> breaking down the traditional obstacles to what a journalist is, ignore
> the immediate needs of press credentials. Indymedia is one of the few
> exceptions to this and due issue press passes.  However any involvement
> with them would probably compromise our neutrality.


Indymedia is hardworking and productive, but very very opinionated and
crusading. Which is a perfectly worthwhile style of journalism ... but
not what Wikinews does.


- d.



More information about the foundation-l mailing list