I don't think we'll have been hit by this block. Blogspot blogs use
subdomains, however Wikibooks isn't a subdomain of Wikipedia so won't have
been counted in a full-domain ban.
I'd say Wikinews might be next, as they've surely covered these stories too
(although probably not in as much detail as WP). Unless of course they've
specifically decided to ban ALL Wikimedia sites, which is also possible.
As for Wikibooks, we may be the next target of such a block. I doubt the
cartoon article was anything less than NPOV at the time they reviewed; if
someone only chooses to focus on the negative portions of a work it's easy
to write off the whole site because of it. We at WB can't future-proof
against such occurrences without hampering editors, and our disclaimers
won't necessarily satiate offended parties either.
I knew things in Pakistan were bad, but, damn, destroying freedom...
-- Garret
On 01/04/06, xkernigh(a)netscape.net <xkernigh(a)netscape.net> wrote:
I forward an email claiming that Pakistan was blocking access to
Wikipedia. I do not know whether Wikibooks and other Wikimedia
sites were also blocked (they run on the same servers), but an
earlier block against one Blogspot blog apparently blocked all
of Blogspot.
The linked site
http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/
claims that the Wikipedia block began at 31 March 2006, but was lifted
at
the same day. I have no way to verify this information.
The email said that Wikipedia "was likely
blocked because one article of the massive 3.5 million topics covered
on the website contained information pertaining to the controversial
cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)". I am aware that an
English Wikipedia article contains such cartoons. There is a thread
from February 2006 at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Kernigh
about them. Though I favor removing the cartoons from the article,
I think that governments should not block unrelated pages, and
governments that respect free speech should not block such cartoons
nor pages about them.
I am not aware of any similar content on Wikibooks, but we could
have such content in the future. English Wikibooks policy at
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/WB:WIW states that "Wikibooks is not
censored for the 'protection of minors' (content-rated)," and that
"modules can be, and are, censored by consensus."
-- [[User:Kernigh]], in USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Sabahat Ashraf <ashrafs(a)alum.rpi.edu>
To: pakistan-l(a)wikicities.com; wikia-l(a)wikicities.com
Sent: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 12:24:33 -0800
Subject: [Wikia-l] Fw: [Pakistan PRESS RELEASE] PAKISTAN BLOCKS
WIKIPEDIA
I am not on the wikipedia lists; please forward.
S
<-----Original Message----->
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dr. Awab Alvi
Date: Mar 31, 2006 12:20 PM
Subject: PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
31st March 2006
For Further Information:
Dr. Awab Alvi (Pakistan)
Cell: 92-333-2373493
Email: drawab(a)cyber.net.pk
Blog:
http://www.teeth.com.pk/blog/
Omar Alvie (UAE)
Cell: 00971-50-6268410
Email: over_email(a)yahoo.co
Blog:
http://oream.blogspot.com
URL:
http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/
PAKISTAN BLOCKS WIKIPEDIA
Today, 31 March 2006, at around 13:00 Pakistan Standard Time, it has
come to our attention that another important website was added to the
blacklisted domains from Pakistan: that is the entire domain of
Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, was likely
blocked because one article of the massive 3.5 million topics covered
on the website contained information pertaining to the controversial
cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). While the block appeared to
be limited in duration, having been lifted at 20:00 (PST) seven hours
after the initiation, the real issues remain about the future
censorship of education and knowledge in Pakistan.
We request the international print and electronic media to bring this
issue to light in order to ensure that the concerned Pakistani
authorities and ISPs understand the importance of free access to the
Internet.
A month back, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked
access to upwards of 10 million websites being hosted on the
blogspot.com domain, following a Supreme Court order issued on March
3rd condemning the controversial cartoons. The judicial order
instructed the PTA to regulate only twelve offending websites which
were promoting the blasphemous cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH). One of the offending websites happened to be hosted on the
domain
www.blogspot.com. The PTA, as the supreme controlling body of
internet access in Pakistan, entirely blocked access to upwards of 10
millions websites.
Wikipedia is the world's largest online encyclopaedia and is
considered as the single largest online storehouse of knowledge having
over 3.5 million articles on every imaginable topic conceivable in the
world. These articles are gradually improved by contributors and then
the topics are stored safely to then be freely shared with the entire
world. The wikipedia project is translated into over 200 languages
with over one million pages written in the English language, and it
even contains hundreds of topics specifically written in the Urdu
language. It should be important to point out that the largest
printable encyclopaedia Britannica can only cover 65,000 topics which
is easily dwarfed by the 3.5 million topics on Wikipedia.
Simultaneously the printed version of the Britannica Encyclopaedia can
cost upwards of $1400 to purchase but on the other hand each and every
article on Wikipedia is free to read by anyone having an internet
connection.
The DON'T BLOCK THE BLOG campaign
(
http://www.help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/ ) was launched
on 3rd March, 2006 in order to highlight and protest the issue of the
blockage of blogs in Pakistan. We now extend our campaign to protest
any blockage of Wikipedia in Pakistan. Both these issues are
important to a developing nation such as Pakistan. What began as
censorship of simple freedom of speech appears to have the real
possibility of being extended to censorship of education and knowledge
in Pakistan.
--
[Sabahat Iqbal Ashraf]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
c: (510) 304 5927
www.ashrafs.org/iFaqeer
ashrafs(a)alum.rpi.edu
pakistan.wikia.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please visit:
http://pakistan.wikia.com/wiki/Earthquake_10-05
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://iFaqeer.blogspot.com Socio-Political Commentary
http://WadiWallah.blogspot.com Technology, Life & Silicon Valley
http://PakistanFutures.blogspot.com Possible Futures for Pakistan
http://Urdu-ke-Naam.blogspot.com Language, Poetry and Spirituality
http://Rickshaw.blogspot.com Rickshaw!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
My religion is humanitarianism?.. Which is basis [sic]of every religion
in this world.
Abdus Sattar Edhi (Pakistan's humanitarian phenom)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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