This lawsuit seems to me to be attacking broadly shared peace and
prosperity for the long term, as described in my Wikiversity article on
"Information is a public good: Designing experiments to improve
government":
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Information_is_a_public_good:_Designing_experiments_to_improve_government
This includes multiple citations to a 2002 World Bank report on
"Right to tell: The Role of Mass Media in Economic Development",
including comments by then-World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who
wrote, "free press is not a luxury. It is at the core of equitable
development. ... But ... the independence of the media can be fragile
and easily compromised. ... Sometimes control by powerful private
interests restricts reporting. ... [T]o support development, media need
the right environment — in terms of freedoms, capacities, and checks and
balances." That citation and others in this tech report documents
substantial research that might be useful in combating attacks like this
on free press.
*** ACTION BY WMF PORTUGAL?
What might it take to have the European Portuguese Wikipedia display
a banner documenting this case and the threat it poses to free speech
everywhere, including link(s) to document(2) like my Wikiversity piece
cited above? (And maybe even have it highlighted more broadly?)
Spencer Graves, PhD
User:DavidMCEddy
4550 Warwick Blvd 508
Kansas City, Missouri 64111 USA
On 7/27/23 12:05 PM, Ndahiro Derrick Alter wrote:
So unfortunate to hear that we still have cases of people who want to
control the free flow of information. Hoping the Wikipedia editors get
the protection that they deserve
On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 at 19:01, <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Dear Friends,
We wish to bring your attention to important developments in Portugal.
We are concerned that an ongoing lawsuit against the Wikimedia
Foundation in Portugal may be a strategic lawsuit against public
participation (SLAPP) designed to suppress well-sourced public
information.
To summarize, the court has so far ordered the Foundation to delete
information from articles about the notable person who is suing us,
and to identify the Wikipedians who added the content. The case
could end up with a ruling that punishes individuals simply for
summarizing and publishing on Wikipedia what was said about a
notable person in news media. If a volunteer editor who works on an
article can become liable for everything that is in the article,
contributing to Wikipedia will become much more difficult not only
in Portugal, but potentially elsewhere as well. This would have an
undue chilling effect on freedom of expression and information
worldwide.
We want to assure you that we are fighting this case for two
reasons: 1) to protect the user data of volunteers contributing to
political biographies; and, 2) to set an important precedent
protecting the ability to write biographies of living persons. In
the process, the Foundation has not provided any user data in this
case. We are hopeful that the courts will agree with us on the
importance of protecting freedom of information and good-faith
discussion of public interest topics.
You can learn more about the details of the case and what it could
mean for Wikimedia projects and volunteers in this blog post [1].
All the best,
Ziski & WMF Global Advocacy Team
-----
[1]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/07/27/high-stakes-for-the-wikimedia-projects-in-portugal-fighting-a-strategic-lawsuit-against-public-participation-slapp/
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/07/27/high-stakes-for-the-wikimedia-projects-in-portugal-fighting-a-strategic-lawsuit-against-public-participation-slapp/>
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