On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 11:55 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 10:14 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On Sun, Mar 15, 2015 at 5:53 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.w...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >> >>> What other unfortunate laws are >>> happening elsewhere in the world and how do we track and maybe act on >>> those? >> >> > > Here is a concrete suggestion: > > Reach out to the most reputable human rights organisations. > > Starting with the countries at the bottom of the press freedom league > table, have the human rights organisations form working groups to assess > the relevant Wikipedia language versions for their coverage of the human > rights situation in the countries they serve. > > If a working group finds that a Wikipedia language version does not > accurately reflect the government's human rights record, issue a public > warning that – in the human rights organisations' opinion – the Wikipedia > in question appears to be subject to undue political manipulation. > > Provide funding for this work. Ensure high visibility for the resulting > reports. Ideally, place a superprotected link to the report in the > Wikipedia itself. > > This will increase the chances that the content will be accurate, while > relieving pressure on activists in the countries concerned. > > Think of it as a "Wikipedia freedom index." > One more case to illustrate the need. Human Rights Watch summarizes the situation in Uzbekistan[1] as follows: ---o0o--- Uzbekistan’s human rights record is atrocious. Torture is endemic in the criminal justice system. Authorities intensified their crackdown on civil society activists, opposition members, and journalists. Muslims and Christians who practice their religion outside strict state controls are persecuted, and freedom of expression is severely limited. The government forces more than one million adults and children to harvest cotton under abusive conditions. Authorities still deny justice for the 2005 Andijan massacre, in which government forces shot and killed hundreds of protesters, most of them unarmed. Despite this, the United States and European Union continue to advance closer relations with Uzbekistan, seeking cooperation with the war in Afghanistan. ---o0o--- Here is the biography of Uzbekistan's president in the Uzbek Wikipedia, as translated by Google: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fuz.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FIslom_Karimov&edit-text= Even from this broken translation, it is quite evident that this is another hagiography, devoid of any hint of criticism. Here are some samples: ---o0o--- ... a well-thought-out program to build the country's economic foundation ... Karimov initiative promoting global policy is always the best ideas in the world, regardless of their point of view, it is known as a person who can achieve the desired goal. He has been committed to peace and unity policy. Karimov new residential construction, including a great step-by Jolanda prosperity of our ancestors, plays an important role in the implementation of the economic capacity to build large enterprises, cities, towns, and above all, a radical transformation of the capital, Tashkent, <https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshkent&usg=ALkJrhguDlungYjoz2D8dUf12x2v7u6qjA> supervises the work. Karimov to establish an independent state and a democratic civil society based on the construction of the new century, the main directions of development of the country has developed into a bright future in the way of the people, it is the great goals. ---o0o--- The English Wikipedia biography of the president[2] mentions dissidents being boiled alive. Peter Hitchens wrote about this some years ago, in an article titled "Our new best friends boil dissidents alive".[3] Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan were among the countries represented at the "Turkic Wikimedia Conference 2012", which according to the documentation on Meta[4] was coordinated by "Wikipedian of the Year" winners Wikibilim, and financially supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. [1] http://www.hrw.org/europecentral-asia/uzbekistan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_Karimov#Human_rights_and_press_freedom [3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-228241/Our-new-best-friends-boil-dissidents-alive.html [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Turkic_Wikimedia_Conference_2012 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
