[Mediawiki-l] Koren Wikipedia under National Security Law?

Puzzlet Chung puzzlet at gmail.com
Thu Jan 5 02:33:25 UTC 2006


I am Puzzlet Chung, one of the administrators in Korean Wikipedia.

User:WonYong (also in en.wp) in Korean Wikipedia claims that Korean
Wikipedia should follow South Korean National Security Law so that the
contents potentially able to threat the nation (i.e. South Korea)
should be censored. He made National Security violation templates, to
tag "anti-State" articles which should be deleted:

http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security
http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:National_Security2

WonYong insists that it is South Korea that try to conserve Korean
language and protect it from extinction, hence both administration and
contents of Korean Wikipedia should follow South Korean laws, and
Korean language speakers who is not South Korean citizens don't have
anything to do with it. He states that North Korea is not recognized
by South Korea as a nation but a "band of mafias," (the statement of
which is not true, since North Korea is a member of UN, and relation
between two Koreas has changed), and doesn't deserve for Korean
Wikipedia to reflect its POV.

The problem is that some users would agree to his point of view. Out
of two Korean [[names of Korea]], some South Koreans relate "Chosŏn"
with North Korea and Communism. They think equal juxtaposition of two
names, (juxtapose the names when they have to, of course), as not
satisfying Natural Point of View as in South Korea, where the majority
of the Korean Wikipedia users live in, and where the server is located
as well. Although "Chosŏnmal" is the name of Korean language called
not only by North Koreans, but majority of Chinese Koreans and some
Japanese Koreans, some find "Chosŏnmal" aggressive and inappropriate
to use it in some articles.

I am a South Korean citizen myself, but as far as I understand
Wikipedian policy of NPOV, WonYong's activity threats NPOV more than
the "Evil Wikipedia" would threat the existence of South Korea, not
like what he might think, as long as Wikipedia is not a some kind of
Communists' propaganda. But I've started to seriously consider about
moving DB server back to Florida and "foreigning" the site,
contributed by so-called foreigns and South Koreans who's not afraid
of South Korean laws.

Regards,

Puzzlet Chung


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