[Wikimedia-l] Russian Wikipedia in blacklist trouble again

[Tomasz W. Kozlowski]

Hi all,
I think it should be noted that the Russian Wikipedia is having more and 
more problems with the state-maintained Internet blacklist (an idea that 
they heavily opposed, and which made them go on strike last July).

Apparently, the infamous "cannabis smoking" article was put back on the 
said blacklist two days ago (May 6)[1] due to a decision of the Federal 
Drug Control Service which doesn't like the current wording of the 
article. The blacklist now includes fifteen (15) articles related to 
drugs and suicide: thirteen (13) from the Russian, and two (2) from the 
English Wikipedia[2].

This is the second time that the Russian Wikipedia is having trouble 
with the blacklist in the past 30 days, something that has unfortunately 
been missed over the DCRI controversy that occurred in the first days of 
April.

<shameless promotion>
For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, I prepared a short 
summary at <http://twkozlowski.net/roskomnadzor-strikes-back/>; the 
previous episode of the "Wikipedia vs. Roskomnadzor" story is described 
at <http://twkozlowski.net/wikipedia-censorship-attempts/>.
</shameless promotion>

I'm quite sure that it is a mere coincidence that the Russian and French 
controversies occurred around the same time, but it's nevertheless a bit 
worrying to have to watch our communities being forced to edit the 
contents of articles to please the authorities & take them off blacklists.

== References ==
* [1] 
<http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130507/181016379/Wikipedia-Cannabis-Article-Put-Back-on-Russian-Blacklist.html>
* [2] http://tiny.cc/e7urww

	-- Tomasz