[Wikimedia-l] No internet censorship in Hong Kong

[Tom Morris]

On Thursday, 10 May 2012 at 22:49, Nathan wrote:
> This is a similar argument to those made against Egypt or Israel etc. It's
> a facile and false notion that holding Wikimania in a particular city is an
> implicit political endorsement for the national government of the host
> city. You could just as easily interpret it in the opposite manner -
> holding a Wikimania event in Egypt, Israel, China, the U.S. or elsewhere
> supports knowledge liberalism and draws attention to the mission of the WMF
> in the areas where it may be most poignant. More likely, the decision of
> where to hold the event is made independent of political concerns and the
> WMF, as well as the host Wikimedians, take no political positions implicit
> or otherwise.




As one of the people who worked on and supported the London bid, I agree. I would hope that if London had got it, people wouldn't have inferred support for the UK's planned internet censorship regime (or, indeed, the Digital Economy Act, the enormous and growing gap between the rich and poor, the presence of unelected clerics in our legislature—a trait we share only with Iran, our government's horrible mistreatment of disabled people, the lack of full civil equality for LGBT citizens, indoctrination in religious schools, our terrible libel laws, or seventeen other issues I can and do get angry about very frequently).

Spending a week or so in a country for a conference is not the same as living there, becoming a citizen, pledging allegiance to the flag or the Queen or the Party or whatever.

In the bidding process, there rightly are some minimum standards, specifically with regards to freedom of speech laws and whether or not the cities in question are welcoming to religious and LGBT minorities. If we wish to include anti-censorship as one of those requirements, it'd be worth knowing that up-front so Wikimedians who wish to bid in the future can take that into account rather than have it brought up after the bidding process is complete.  

--  
Tom Morris
<http://tommorris.org/>