Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-10-07/In the media



Wales accepts International Writer of Courage award on behalf of Saudi blogger
On October 6, jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was awarded the 2015 PEN Pinter Prize's "International Writer of Courage" award. Jimmy Wales accepted the award on behalf of Badawi and his family. Wales is an honorary board member of the Raif Badawi Foundation, which was founded by Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar. Badawi has been imprisoned since his arrest in 2012. He was convicted of "violating Islamic values and propagating liberal thought" through his blog and sentenced to ten years in prison and a thousand lashes. Badawi has already received fifty lashes and may not survive the infliction of the remaining lashes, a sentence that has been described as "a slow death". Badawi's arrest and conviction have been the target of worldwide protest and condemnation. In his speech, Wales condemned the British government for not taking action:

Another man who has been the victim of government imprisonment is Syrian open-source software developer Bassel Khartabil. Both Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation recently expressed concern for Khartabil, a Wikipedia contributor who has been imprisoned since 2012. Khartabil's current whereabouts are unknown since he was removed from the Adra Prison on October 3. G

Pakistan's third-richest person?
On October 8, Pakistani sports-hero turned politician Imran Khan was slammed for quoting Wikipedia during a press conference in which he said that "As per Wikipedia Nawaz Sharif is ranked as third richest in Pakistan and yet doesn't list under top 10,000 tax payers in Pakistan". People take to social media to criticise Imran Khan for citing information from Wikipedia, with many saying that Imran Khan needs to conduct actual research rather than relying on unreliable Wikipedia to get information. The statement even sparked a hashtag "#AsPerWikipedia" trend on Twitter where Pakistani Twitter users made fun of Khan for citing Wikipedia and exchanged a variety of tendentious remarks. One Twitterati @real_sumaira went as far tweeting that "#AsPerWikipedia General Raheel Sharif is on no 5 in the list of most powerful personalities of the world."

A day later, Khan again cited Wikipedia and reiterate the same statement during a political rally. The reaction to the Khan's statement was also seen on Pakistani TV talk shows where Khan was lambasted for using Wikipedia as his source of information. Many local news publications also published Khan's statement in news articles. A Pakistani news channel Dunya News even reported that "Imran Khan won't be quoting Wikipedia anytime soon" following the chaos that his statement has created.

It should be noted that both the press conference and political rally were part of a by-election campaign in Lahore.

However, it is yet to be determined from which Wikipedia article Khan drew the claim that "Sharif is third richest person of Pakistan". Thoroughly scrutinising through Wikipedia pages, such a fact couldn't be found. In-fact Sharif's own English Wikipedia biography page states that the "Sharif family are the fourth wealthiest family in Pakistan", not that he himself is the third-wealthiest. S



In brief

 * So you want a Wikipedia article: News.com.au talks with some "Wikipedia rejects" who failed to get Wikipedia articles on themselves via Articles for Creation. They warn that "Creating an entry on the online encyclopaedia could bring more embarrassment than kudos"  (Oct. 6)


 * Canadian government editing: As if to prove the previous article correct, Buzzfeed reports that an IP address belonging to the House of Commons of Canada edited Wikipedia to remove unflattering information from the article of Conservative MP Rick Dykstra, including references to a controversy about allegations that he purchased alcohol for underage girls on October 2. (Oct. 6)


 * Wales on PR editing: Jimmy Wales told The Times that Wikipedia needed to boost the number of active editors in order to combat "public relations spin". Wales said it was "against all of our values" for the encyclopedia to "become a PR platform".  The Times opined that "It would be fatal to the flawed but idealistic enterprise of Wikipedia if its content were left to those whose intellectual curiosity extends no further than their own reputations. The wisdom of crowds must not be supplanted by the dumbness of diminution." (Oct. 5)


 * Wiki-contest in Oman: The Times of Oman reports on a "WikiOman" contest by the government's Information Technology Authority to encourage content about Oman on the Arabic Wikipedia. (Oct. 4)


 * Crowdfunding a Belarusan Wikipedia manual: Belarus Digest reports on a crowdfunding campaign to produce a guide to editing Wikipedia called Wіkі-manual. Manage knowledge! (Oct. 2)
 * Wikipedian profiled: The blog of the Biodiversity Heritage Library profiles Wikipedian Siobhan Leachman and discusses how her work with the Smithsonian Transcription Center led her to create Wikipedia articles about female scientists she was learning about from the sources she was transcribing. (Oct. 1)

G

Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or contact the editor.